Movies
TV Shows
People

Esther Eng

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
1

Gender
Female

Birthday
September 24, 1914 (111 years old)

Place of Birth
San Francisco, California, USA

Esther Eng

Biography

Esther Eng (September 24, 1914 – January 25, 1970) was an American director and producer; known to be the first woman to have directed Chinese-language films in the United States, as well as South China's first woman director. As an openly lesbian woman, Esther Eng provided social commentary with a focus on the female protagonists in her works. Many of the films she has directed and produced are considered to be lost except for Golden Gate Girl (1941) and Murder in New York Chinatown (1961).

First shown in the 37th Hong Kong International Film Festival, the film Golden Gate Girls (2013, dir. S. Louisa Wei) with its title borrowed from one of Esther Eng's works, is a documentary film dedicated to her legacy as a filmmaker and her life.

Known For

Directing

1961Murder Case in Chinatown...Director
1949Mad Fire, Mad Love...Director
1948Back Street...Director
1947The Lady in the Blue Lagoon...Director
1941Golden Gate Girl...Director
1939It's a Women's World...Director
1938A Night of Romance, A Lifetime of Regret...Director
1938Tragic Love...Director
1938Ten Thousand Lovers...Director
1937National Heroine...Director

Writing

1948Back Street...Screenplay
1939It's a Women's World...Writer
1938Tragic Love...Screenplay

Production

1936Heartaches...Producer

Acting

2013Golden Gate Girlsas Herself (archive footage)