Through our work with the Center for Asian American Media, Natalie Tsui, Donna Foronda and I united over our shared yearning for more accurate, dignified, and multidimensional reflections of our lived experiences as Queer & Non-binary folks, People of Color and Women. We’ve found much existing media portraying these communities to typically represent a small, segregated, and either glossed over or overly-manicured cross-section of who we are, and can be. We have always wanted more.

CHOSEN FAM: A Web Series is our radical – and honest- counterpoint to this canon. It is inspired by an entire community of racially-diverse, gender-expansive and LGBTQ+ independent musicians, artists, activists, organizers and allies comprising the robust SF Bay Area DIY music scene that raised me, and helped me to cultivate my political and artistic voice.

In addition to being critically underrepresented in media, it is also worth noting that this community is under threat of displacement and dissolution. Against the backdrop of a historic housing crisis, stark class inequity, and an ugly culture war, these characters are fighting tooth-and-nail to preserve their sense of love, goofiness, joy, interconnection, and of course, music. This series celebrates merely one fight of Queer & Trans People of Color (QTPOC) to experience these very human necessities in the face of stark, and often overwhelming circumstances.

While any resemblance to actual persons and events is of course purely coincidental, we are proud of creating characters and stories based on true anecdotes, empirical research and interviews with people of these same lived experiences. We are also proud of casting artists who reflect these agencies, and bring a necessary lived-in and first-person-familiar- as opposed to theoretical- lens to these stories. It is our hope that our fellow media-makers join us in this practice.

This is my first narrative screenplay, and our first time producing a series of any length. We are proud that we actually completed season one, full stop! It almost didn’t get made. We hustled, networked, and crowdfunded $20k+ in donations from 210+ generous supporters over the course of three years, to complete this season. Much like the DIY community portrayed therein, it took the passion, ingenuity, persistence and resourcefulness of a community of filmmakers, musicians, writers, grantmakers, small business owners, friends, family, and allies to bring this labor of love to fruition. We sincerely thank everyone who has partaken in this (ongoing) journey. To say we are grateful is an understatement.

Lastly, we hope this series crests the rising tide of People of Color, Women, Queer and Trans people, and fellow underrepresented groups, who are fighting for their place before the camera, behind the camera, and in the room where it happens. No one piece of media can, or should, bear the weight of comprehensively telling the stories of all of us. As such, we affirm Chosen Fam to be but one thread of many, comprising a rich tapestry that celebrates the complexities of who we are to the world.

We hope you enjoy the show, and that our fellow QTPOC, Queer and Trans folks, People of Color, and women, find relief and comfort in being exactly who they are supposed to be.

Kyle Casey Chu