San Francisco is no doubt a cinematic city. Many well-known films and television series have been filmed here, but the city is also home to communities and stories that don’t always make it onto the Hollywood screen.

The racist attacks against Asian Americans that we have seen in recent years have also reminded us that divisions still exist, sometimes because of fear of what is unfamiliar or different from the mainstream

In the world of art and filmmaking, there is a sense of community. Regardless of where you come from or what language you speak, there is usually something that brings us together: art, films and books.

Perhaps it is time we explored more of them. Not only because they entertain us, but because they can introduce us to lives, families and communities that we might otherwise know very little about.

In the case of cinema, the contribution of Asian-American filmmakers to American cinema has been enormous. So, if all you’ve seen is Crazy Rich Asians, get ready for something completely different: charming, understated films that have little in common with Hollywood extravaganzas and offer a very different picture of Chinese-American life.

These are films that found an audience through the independent and arthouse cinema circuit and that put Asian-American lives and experiences on screen on their own terms.

San Francisco cinema lovers, particularly younger generations discovering the city through film, might enjoy these three movies. All were directed by the legendary independent filmmaker Wayne Wang, a pioneer of Asian-American cinema who has long been associated with the Bay Area.

Chan Is Missing, 1982

Director: Wayne Wang

A very entertaining mystery film made for just $20,000 back in 1982, Chan Is Missing is incredibly rich in setting and character detail.

San Francisco cab drivers Jo and his nephew Steve are robbed of $4,000 meant for a taxi licence by Chan Hung, who then goes missing. The two taxi drivers go looking for him in Chinatown, believing that he may not have intended to steal the money.

As they knock on doors and speak to people, we are gradually introduced to the people and atmosphere of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The film is funny, unusual and wonderfully low-key. It doesn’t feel like a Hollywood version of Chinatown. It feels like you’re actually wandering through the neighbourhood with its characters.

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, 1985

Director: Wayne Wang

I have to admit that ever since I saw this film, my dream is not a cruise around the Caribbean but something much simpler: a San Francisco holiday where I visit Chinatown and eat the most delicious dim sum.

The simple pleasures of life offer, without a doubt, some of the greatest joys, and this movie is exactly that — joyful, understated and mouthwatering too.

The film is a very charming tale of a Chinese-American family living in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It is seen through the eyes of a 30-something career woman, played by Laureen Chew, and her widowed mother, played by Kim Chew, who welcomes the New Year while thinking she is going to die.

It is a comedy, but it also deals with complex human emotions, family responsibility and the desire to live one’s own life.

And, of course, there is the food.

I could practically taste the dim sum through the screen.

The Joy Luck Club, 1993

Director: Wayne Wang

The Joy Luck Club is the film that brought this kind of Chinese-American story to a much wider mainstream American audience.

Based on Amy Tan’s bestselling 1989 novel, the film gives us an insight into the lives of Chinese-American families caught between Chinese and Western values, dealing with family expectations, cultural differences and the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters.

In San Francisco, four middle-aged Chinese immigrant mothers and their Americanised daughters meet regularly to discuss their lives and families while playing mahjong. This is the Joy Luck Club of the title.

It is a film about family, identity, expectations and the things parents and children sometimes struggle to say to one another.

A joy to watch.

The Joy Luck Club, 1993

Three films, one city

What I love about these films is that they show a San Francisco that feels lived-in rather than polished for tourists.

There are families, taxi drivers, mothers and daughters, food, neighbourhoods, arguments, humour and all the little details that make a city feel like home.

And perhaps that is one of the reasons I love cinema so much. You can sit in your living room thousands of miles away from San Francisco and suddenly find yourself wanting to visit Chinatown, eat dim sum and see the city through completely different eyes.

That sounds like a pretty good reason to watch a film.