The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook by Valerie Soe
Sunday, May 10, 2026, 4:15 pm
Valerie Soe’s The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook
presented in association with CAAMFest
Presented in association with CAAMFest 2026
Admission: $15 General / $13 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here
CAAMFest 2026 returns for its 44th year from May 7–10 in San Francisco Japantown, bringing four days of screenings that highlight fresh, independent voices and unexpected stories from Asian America. Presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM)—a nonprofit dedicated for over 45 years to sharing the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences through film, television, and digital media—CAAMFest remains the nation’s largest Asian American festival. The full schedule and tickets are available at CAAMFest.com, with more information about CAAM at CAAMedia.org.
The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook
What would you do to protect your neighbors?
In March 2020, as COVID-19 exposed deep fractures in the US public health system, performance artist Kristina Wong launched the Auntie Sewing Squad. A grassroots collective of primarily BIPOC women volunteers, the Aunties mobilized virtually with an urgent mission: to protect those most at risk. What began as a few dozen crafty activists quickly grew into a nationwide network of more than 800 volunteers, sewing and donating masks to historically disenfranchised communities of color. In this feature-length documentary, director Valerie Soe (Love Boat: Taiwan; The Oak Park Story) follows Kristina Wong (Radical Cram School) as she activates a group of self-proclaimed Aunties to transform domestic spaces as sites of resistance. From their sewing machines, they confront systemic inequities head-on, openly discussing feminism, anti-racism, mutual aid, and collective care. Through acts both intimate and expansive, the Squad—Aunties, Uncles and non-binary volunteers alike—reimagines what solidarity looks like in a time of crisis. Their living room “sweatshops” not only become engines of radical care to offer protection, but also a powerful blueprint for community-driven action and change.
This film was supported by CAAM’s Documentary Fund with funding provided by CPB.
Valerie Soe is a filmmaker, writer, and artist whose work has won awards and exhibited at venues worldwide. Her feature documentary, LOVE BOAT: TAIWAN (2019) won the Audience Award at the Urban Nomad Film Festival in Taipei and played to sold-out festival audiences across North America and in Taiwan. She is a Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University.