Tyrus is a multi-award winning feature documentary film that explores the life, art, and enduring impact of pioneering Chinese-American painter, Hollywood sketch artist, and Disney Legend, Tyrus Wong. The film premiered at the 42nd Telluride Film Festival and was broadcast on the Emmy-nominated season of PBS’s American Masters series.

backSTORY

I first learned about artist Tyrus Wong while watching the “making of” Bambi featurette in 1998. I was stunned to learn that a Chinese American artist had created the visual look of the film and had worked at Disney during the 1930s. How was this even possible? Wasn’t Hollywood a White boys club? Weren’t employment opportunities for Chinese immigrants mostly limited to laundrymen, houseboys, or waiters? An even bigger question was, “Why hadn't I heard of him before?”

I tracked Tyrus down with the help of historian Suellen Cheng and invited him to have lunch at my familyʼs Chinese restaurant in downtown LA.  Over Chinese chicken salad and garlic shrimp, I learned that his three and a half years at Bambi was just a scratch on the surface of a decades-long career as a fine artist and Hollywood production illustrator. I wanted to know how this young boy from Southern China who spoke no English, had little money, and who once lived above a brothel in L.A.ʼs old Chinatown, became a rising star in the art world and a Disney Legend. I immediately knew his story was unique, dramatic, and had the classic elements of a heroʼs journey.

So began my seventeen-year journey to tell Tyrusʼs story.