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Cinema scholars have well documented how movies "made in the USA" have dominated screens internationally for 90 years, yet much needed are careful accounts of intra-regional and community-based media circuits around the globe that do not fit the “West to the Rest” model. I seek NEH support to finish my book “Trading in Cultural Spaces,” which draws on dense archival research to document individuals, practices, and locales comprising an unwritten strand of American film history: the trans-Pacific flow of Chinese movies into and within the U.S. From the early 20th century such films have challenged stereotypes and forged avenues for cross-cultural exchange. By recovering multiple Chinese American and supporting voices, images and multicultural networks, my project aims to refocus cinema history on its prior margins, to enrich transnational and national film and social histories and make intellectual contributions consonant with the new NEH "Bridging Cultures" initiative.