In this sensorial portrait of place, filmmaker Shirley Yumeng He brings to life the abundant textures and vibrant sounds of ross Alley in San Francisco’s Chinatown. At its entrance stands the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company, a popular tourist attraction. But a step beyond is one of the oldest communities of intergenerational Chinese Americans in the United States. The film finds its steady beat in the mechanical ticking of the fortune cookie machine before melding with the rhythmic drumming of the traditional Chinese lion dance. If you listen closely, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin are among the many languages heard in passing conversations. How does one understand questions of authenticity in a space bridging worlds of language and culture? Fortune is a poetic meditation that redirects the question, uncovering rich layers in the diasporic identity of Chinese America. KL