When 19-year-old Chinatown native Danny Chen dies while serving in Afghanistan, the official account raises troubling questions for the family who knew his ambitions and devotion to loved ones. As disturbing details surrounding his final weeks emerge, his grieving parents and New York community mobilize to uncover the truth. Both an intimate investigation and stirring portrait of collective resistance, the film honors a young life while confronting racism, institutional power, and the difficult pursuit of accountability. – Ruth Somalo, DOC NYC 2026

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Born and raised in Chinatown and the Lower East Side in New York City, Danny Chen was the only child of Chinese immigrant parents. Danny’s mother, Mrs. Chen, remembers him as a respectful and loving son. He attended Baruch College on a scholarship, but grew bored after a month of classes. Yearning for something different and adventurous, he enlisted with the Army. Danny was proud of graduating from basic training and excited to deploy. Six weeks into Danny’s deployment to Afghanistan, however, soldiers showed up at the Chens’ door with a devastating message: Danny was dead.

At Danny’s funeral in Chinatown, rumors swirled of the abuse Danny endured while on deployment. The military had yet to confirm the cause of death. Community advocacy group OCA-NY, led by then-president Liz OuYang and other community members pressured the military for answers on behalf of the Chens: WHAT HAPPENED TO DANNY?

One week after an electrifying march and vigil in Chinatown, eight soldiers were charged in connection to Danny’s death. The Army investigation revealed some of the hazing Danny suffered under their watch. Seven were court-martialed, but the sentences were painfully light. Despite the disheartening trials, Liz and the community continue to remember Danny, 15 years later and counting.

ManSee Kong - Director/Producer

ManSee (she/her) is a filmmaker and cultural worker born and raised in NYC. Her work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, film festivals, the UK and Italy, with support from Jerome Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, BRIClab, Camargo Foundation, Spike Lee Production Fund, and Asian Women Giving Circle. ManSee cofounded the cultural collective Chinatown Art Brigade, and is a graduate of Third World Newsreel's Production Workshop.

Sam (he/him) has over a decade of experience in multimedia storytelling in journalism and film. He has worked in newsrooms and production houses in Asia, Africa, and North America. His work has shown on Al-Jazeera, CNN, Vice, eNews Channel Africa, and PBS. He was the editor of the Al Jazeera documentary Gateless and a director of photography for two PBS Chicago documentary series—Firsthand and Chicago Stories. Sam was an editor on New Wave (Tribeca 2024), Ashima (DOC NYC 2023), and edited The Faraway Nearby, and Faceless (Hot Docs 2021).

Sam Rong - Editor/Producer

Lia Ouyang Rusli (she/they) is Brooklyn-based composer and artist who performs under the name OHYUNG. She has scored numerous films, including Eva Victor’s Sorry Baby (A24), Neo Sora’s Happyend (Criterion Channel), Julio Torres’s Problemista (A24), and Shatara Michele Ford’s upcoming Dreams in Nightmares. Her scores for television include Fantasmas (HBO), Photographer (Hulu) and Your Attention Please (Hulu). She wrote the music for Celia Rowlson-Hall’s SISSY, which premiered at Baryshnikov Arts in 2025, and Julio Torres’s comedy special Color Theories (HBO), which originally premiered off-Broadway at Performance Space New York. As a composer, her innovative, genre-defying scores have been recognized by the New York Times, the Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, the A.V. Club, Time Out and Variety.

Lorraine Ma - Producer

Jennifer (she/her) is a journalist and documentary filmmaker who has lived between three continents. Faceless (Hot Docs 2021) was her debut feature on the Hong Kong protests, subsequently screening at festivals including the Busan International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, LAAPFF, and Heartland. She has developed and produced current affairs documentaries for BBC's award-winning strands Panorama and Our World. She holds a MSc in migration and development from SOAS London and is part of the collective organizing the annual London Migration Film Festival.

Jennifer Ngo - Producer

Lorraine (she/her) is an award-winning producer focused on nonfiction and issue-driven films. She produced a trilogy of political thrillers including​ Ten Years Thailand​, which premiered at Cannes in 2018​. She was the director of Al Jazeera documentary ​Gateless,​ produced by Oscar-winner Ruby Yang. She produced Faceless (Hot Docs 2021) which was acquired by VICE. Lorraine has worked in production development, developing and financing original series and movies. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Matt Huynh - Artist/Animator

Matt (he/him) is an Emmy Award winning Vietnamese-Australian artist working in New York City. His bold brush and ink paintings are informed by calligraphic Eastern sumi-e ink traditions and Western comic books. His illustrated essays, comics and animation interrogate the repercussions of war, with a focus on diasporic refugee narratives and the experiences of asylum seekers and migrant communities. Huynh’s VR documentary, Reeducated, won a Peabody Award and Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media. His interactive comic The Boat was awarded a World Illustration Award, and he was Eisner nominated for Cabramatta. Huynh's comics, animation and illustrations have been exhibited by the MoMA, The Smithsonian, and The Sydney Opera House. When he is not writing and painting with ink, he is making ink.

Lia Ouyang Rusli - Composer

Jessica Lee Salas is a documentary film editor who is drawn towards stories exploring identity, culture and the mysteries of human nature. The most recent film she’s completed, Before the Moon Falls, has won six festival jury awards including Best Documentary at CAAMFest and the Special Jury Award for Editing at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. Additional projects include: The Cost of Inheritance, a DOC-NYC official selection directed by Yoruba Richen; Predicting My MS directed by Jason DaSilva for NOVA; Talking About Race, an Emmy nominated short film series for Sesame Street Workshop as well as a variety of work for PBS, MAX, VOX and other outlets. A Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow, Jessica developed her storytelling skills producing reports for the PBS Newshour before making her way to the edit chair.

Andrea Lewis (she/her) is a documentary editor and producer known for Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Studio 54, Where’s My Roy Cohn?, Shari & Lamb Chop, and Nobu. Documentaries she has edited have been screened at Sundance, Telluride, Tribeca, DOCNYC, among others and have streamed on CNN, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

Jessica Lee Salas - Editor

Andrea Lewis - Editor

Ariel Loh (she/they) is a trans, Asian American producer, composer and mixing/mastering engineer based in New York and Los Angeles. Her work has been featured on Billboard, Rolling Stone, BBC, NPR, Pitchfork, Vice, MTV, as well as major streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple TV Plus. Her education in recording started at SUNY Purchase and then fostered under the likes of Steve Albini (Electrical Audio), James Iha and Adam Schlesinger (Stratosphere Sound) and Joel Hamilton (Studio G). Ariel works out of their home studio in Ridgewood, Queens and in Atwater Village in LA. When Ariel is not working on music, you can find her building community in queer music spaces. Recently, Ariel co-founded the Trans Music Archive - a nonprofit organization focused on preserving the legacy of trans musicians on vinyl.

Ariel Loh - Composer

Nancy M. Tong (she/her) is a filmmaker, professor, and Associate Producer of Oscar-nominated documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin. She co-produced the Peabody Award-winning Cancer: from Evolution to Revolution, directed In the Name of the Emperor (Special Jury Prize, San Francisco Int'l Film Festival), and directed/produced Trailblazers in Habits (ABC). She managed New York productions of Hong Kong feature films such as Mabel Cheung’s An Autumn’s Tale, and Clara Law’s Farewell China. She is the writer and editor of 1937: 南京. Tong taught documentary film production at City University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong, with master classes in Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia. She currently consults and advises emerging documentary filmmakers from Hong Kong.

Nancy Tong - Advisor, Story Consultant

Corinne Manabat Cueva (she/her) is a Filipina American independent media artist and filmmaker who creates thought-provoking and visually poetic media. Her most notable work, Why We Rise (2013) received the 2014 CAAMFest Loni Ding Award for Social Issue Documentary and was featured on the PBS Online Film Festival. Her other documentary shorts include Keeping It Creative (2021), Synchronized (2020), More Than Marination (2012), and Excuse My Gangsta Ways (2008). Her works have been shown nationwide at film festivals, museums, and academia nationwide including Documentary Fortnight at MoMA NYC, Oakland International Film Festival, Emeryville Arts Exhibition, and the Association for Asian American Studies.

Corinne Manabat Cueva - Producer

Greg Chen is a visual storyteller who has worked in journalism, advertising, and broadcast, as well as on documentary films and museum exhibits. He’s held creative roles in newsrooms like The Guardian and CNN and has done work for financial institutions, nonprofits, and mission-driven brands. Most recently, he designed the titles and motion graphics for the award-winning documentary Songs from the Hole.

Greg Chen - Motion Graphics

www.twn.org/support-us
Select: "What Happened to Danny - ManSee Kong" in the drop down menu of the embedded form

TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS
can be made to our fiscal sponsor:
Third World Newsreel
545 8th Avenue, Suite 550
New York, NY 10018

Acknowledgments

This film is made possible in part due to the support of Center for Asian American Media, Jerome Foundation, Asian Women Giving Circle, New York State Council on the Arts, BRIC Film & TV Residency, Puffin Foundation, and the generosity of individual donors.

SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES

© 2026. All rights reserved.