New York, December 12, 2025 – Christine Choy, the groundbreaking filmmaker whose Oscar-nominated documentary about Vincent Chin's murder galvanized the Asian American community, died December 7 while in hospice care in New York. She was 73.
Choy is survived by her daughter and her two sons. A memorial service is planned after the New Year.
JT Takagi, executive director of Third World Newsreel—the filmmaking collective Choy co-founded in 1972—confirmed her passing and described her as a prolific artist who shaped Asian American film history.
A Film That Changed History
Choy received a Peabody Award for her documentary with Renee Tajima-Pena on the baseball bat killing of Chin in Detroit that sparked an Asian American movement. The 1988 film also earned an Academy Award nomination and was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2021.
The documentary chronicled the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American beaten to death by two white autoworkers who mistook him for Japanese during a time when Japanese car manufacturers were blamed for U.S. job losses. The attackers received only probation and fines—a sentence that ignited nationwide protests against anti-Asian violence.
“The impact of Who Killed Vincent Chin? that she directed with Renée Tajima Peña cannot be overstated. It not only captures the movement and the moment of Asians in America, it set the gold standard for the dynamic relationship between community and media,” said Helen Zia, author and founder of the Vincent Chin Institute.
More Than 80 Films, A Legacy of Social Justice
Born in Shanghai to a Korean father and Chinese mother, Choy immigrated to New York City as a teenager. Arriving during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, she witnessed social activism that would define her career.
As a documentary filmmaker, she had produced and directed more than eighty films Wikipedia covering subjects from the Attica prison uprising to the division of the Korean peninsula. Her notable works include “Mississippi Triangle,” exploring diverse Black, Asian and Cajun communities, and documentaries on New York's Chinatown and women in U.S. prisons.
“Chris embodied the energy and spontaneity of a supernova in human form, she was an unfiltered dynamo who never ceased to astound,” Zia added.
Educator and Mentor
Choy taught at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for over 35 years, mentoring emerging filmmakers including Todd Phillips, Raoul Peck, and Brett Morgen. She also taught at Yale, Cornell, and City University in Hong Kong.
NYU Tisch Dean Rubén Polendo called her a triumphant force whose works penetrated America's social conscience, noting her loss is felt deeply across the Tisch community.
PBS's longest running vehicle for non-fiction films, POV, called her a “fearless storyteller and pioneering voice in Asian American cinema. Christine dedicated her life to illuminating justice, uplifting unheard communities and pushing the boundaries of nonfiction filmmaking.”
Throughout her career, Choy received numerous honors including Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships. In 2023, she was presented with a lifetime achievement award by the Hot Docs film festival.
