San Francisco-born Esther Eng is one of the first women to direct a Chinese-language film in the United States and Hong Kong. Her films tells women-centred stories, supports China’s war effort, and gives an infant Bruce Lee his first on-screen appearance. Sadly, her works are largely considered lost. S. Louisa Wei’s documentary Golden Gate Girls gives us a chance to learn about the incredible life story and career of this trailblazer through interviews with her sister, film critics, and scholars. With the aid of rare photographs and footage, the film juxtaposes Eng’s story with that of Anna May Wong and Dorothy Arzner, illustrating how women of that era broke new ground for the film industry.

S. Louisa Wei (b. China) is an independent documentary filmmaker, writer, and professor. Wei moved to Canada in 1992 to pursue studies in literature and film. In 2001, she moved to Hong Kong and released her first work, Cui Jian: Rocking China (2006), which subsequently led to her feature-length documentary Storm Under the Sun (2009). Other directorial credits include Golden Gate Girls (2014) and Havana Divas (2018), among others.