9-Man

For 80 years, Chinese American men have played an isolated and unique streetball game on the hot and dirty asphalt of Chinatowns across the USA and Canada. 9-MAN uncovers a community, largely undiscovered by the mainstream, centered around a sport that is a gritty, athletic, chaotic urban treasure traditionally played in parking lots and back alleys. Through a season of nine-man, culminating with a bragging-rights championship battle, the film tells the story of a nine-man tournament that grew in the 1930’s, at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment and racist laws forced restaurant workers and laundrymen to socialize exclusively amongst themselves and explores the greater history of the Chinese American experience. Today nine-man is a lasting connection to Chinatown for a dynamic community of men who know a different, more integrated world, but still fight to maintain autonomy and tradition and defend the game's controversial exclusionary rules. Featuring US Olympian Kevin Wong, a 91-year-old Purple Heart WII veteran, and a cast of colorful characters, 9-MAN is a unique and touching portrait of Chinatown.