The episodes are available for viewing on May 1st from 8am to 8pm PT.
Five-Part Series Premiering May 11 and 12, 2020. Episodes 1 and 2 airing May 11 at 8PM on PBS. Episodes 3, 4, 5 airing on May 12 at 8PM on PBS.
Livestreams are available to watch on the Visual Communications Youtube Channel and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Facebook page!
Producing Partners: Center for Asian American Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Flash Cuts, ITVS, PBS, WETA
Community Partners: Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, Asian CineVision/Asian American International Film Festival, Asian American Documentary Network, Austin Asian American Film Festival, Boston Asian American Film Festival, Chicago Foundation for Asian American Independent Media, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, OCA-Greater Houston/HAAPIFest, Pacific Arts Movement/San Diego Asian Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Seattle Asian American Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival
A history in the making! We bring together some of the filmmakers to discuss the making of Episodes 3 & 4 for the PBS documentary series ASIAN AMERICANS. Join us for a special Q&A with episode producers S. Leo Chiang, Grace Lee, and series producer Renee Tajima-Pena.
Featuring:
Renee Tajima-Peña
Renee Tajima-Peña is an Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated filmmaker whose credits include WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?, MY AMERICA...OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA, LABOR WOMEN, CALAVERA HIGHWAY, and her newest film, NO MÁS BEBÉS. Her films have screened at the Cannes, Hong Kong, New Directors/New Films, SXSW, Sundance and Toronto international film festivals and the Whitney Biennial. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, USA Broad Fellowship, Alpert Award in the Arts for Film/Video, a Peabody and a Dupont-Columbia Award. Tajima-Peña teaches social documentary at UCLA, where she is a professor of Asian American Studies, the director of the Center for EthnoCommunications, and holds an endowed chair in Japanese American Studies.
Grace Lee
Grace Lee is an independent producer, director and writer working in both narrative and non-fiction film. She directed the Peabody Award-winning documentary AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS, which The Hollywood Reporter called “an entertainingly revealing portrait of the power of a single individual to effect change.” The film won six audience awards before the broadcast on the PBS documentary series POV. Her previous documentary THE GRACE LEE PROJECT on the Sundance Channel also won multiple awards. Other credits include the Emmy-nominated MAKERS: WOMEN IN POLITICS and OFF THE MENU: ASIAN AMERICA, both for PBS. She has been a Sundance Institute Fellow, a 2017 Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Award winner, an envoy of the American Film Showcase, and is co-founder of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc). She is also a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is currently a producer/director on the five-part landmark PBS series ASIAN AMERICANS as well as AND SHE COULD BE NEXT, a new documentary project about women of color transforming politics and civic engagement.
S. Leo Chiang
S. Leo Chiang is an independent documentarian. His Emmy® Award-nominated film, A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans, picked up eight film festival awards, aired on PBS Independent Lens series, and has been acquired by more than 200 libraries. His last documentary, OUT RUN, which profiles the only LGBT political party in the world, premiered at the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and won Best Cinematography at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. His other films include MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON (Inspiration Award 2012, PBS broadcast 2013), TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (PBS broadcast 2006), ONE + ONE (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and SAFE JOURNEY (PlanetOut.com Short Movie Award 2002). His latest project OUR TIME MACHINE is currently in distribution, and has been supported by ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, Sundance Institute, and Tribeca Film Institute.
The episodes are available for viewing on May 1st from 8am to 8pm PT.
Five-Part Series Premiering May 11 and 12, 2020. Episodes 1 and 2 airing May 11 at 8PM on PBS. Episodes 3, 4, 5 airing on May 12 at 8PM on PBS.
Livestreams are available to watch on the Visual Communications Youtube Channel and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Facebook page!
Producing Partners: Center for Asian American Media, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Flash Cuts, ITVS, PBS, WETA
Community Partners: Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, Asian CineVision/Asian American International Film Festival, Asian American Documentary Network, Austin Asian American Film Festival, Boston Asian American Film Festival, Chicago Foundation for Asian American Independent Media, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, OCA-Greater Houston/HAAPIFest, Pacific Arts Movement/San Diego Asian Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Seattle Asian American Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival
A history in the making! We bring together some of the filmmakers to discuss the making of Episodes 3 & 4 for the PBS documentary series ASIAN AMERICANS. Join us for a special Q&A with episode producers S. Leo Chiang, Grace Lee, and series producer Renee Tajima-Pena.
Featuring:
Renee Tajima-Peña
Renee Tajima-Peña is an Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated filmmaker whose credits include WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?, MY AMERICA...OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA, LABOR WOMEN, CALAVERA HIGHWAY, and her newest film, NO MÁS BEBÉS. Her films have screened at the Cannes, Hong Kong, New Directors/New Films, SXSW, Sundance and Toronto international film festivals and the Whitney Biennial. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, USA Broad Fellowship, Alpert Award in the Arts for Film/Video, a Peabody and a Dupont-Columbia Award. Tajima-Peña teaches social documentary at UCLA, where she is a professor of Asian American Studies, the director of the Center for EthnoCommunications, and holds an endowed chair in Japanese American Studies.
Grace Lee
Grace Lee is an independent producer, director and writer working in both narrative and non-fiction film. She directed the Peabody Award-winning documentary AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS, which The Hollywood Reporter called “an entertainingly revealing portrait of the power of a single individual to effect change.” The film won six audience awards before the broadcast on the PBS documentary series POV. Her previous documentary THE GRACE LEE PROJECT on the Sundance Channel also won multiple awards. Other credits include the Emmy-nominated MAKERS: WOMEN IN POLITICS and OFF THE MENU: ASIAN AMERICA, both for PBS. She has been a Sundance Institute Fellow, a 2017 Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Award winner, an envoy of the American Film Showcase, and is co-founder of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc). She is also a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is currently a producer/director on the five-part landmark PBS series ASIAN AMERICANS as well as AND SHE COULD BE NEXT, a new documentary project about women of color transforming politics and civic engagement.
S. Leo Chiang
S. Leo Chiang is an independent documentarian. His Emmy® Award-nominated film, A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES, about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans, picked up eight film festival awards, aired on PBS Independent Lens series, and has been acquired by more than 200 libraries. His last documentary, OUT RUN, which profiles the only LGBT political party in the world, premiered at the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and won Best Cinematography at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. His other films include MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON (Inspiration Award 2012, PBS broadcast 2013), TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (PBS broadcast 2006), ONE + ONE (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002), and SAFE JOURNEY (PlanetOut.com Short Movie Award 2002). His latest project OUR TIME MACHINE is currently in distribution, and has been supported by ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, Sundance Institute, and Tribeca Film Institute.