First Vote is a character-driven verite documentary with unparalleled access to a diverse cross section of politically engaged Chinese American voters: a gun-toting Tea Party-favorite candidate courting GOP votes in the South; a podcaster in Ohio who became a citizen in order to vote for Trump; a progressive journalist confronting Chinese Americans for Trump after moving to a battleground state from Beijing; and a University of North Carolina professor teaching about race and racism in the U.S. The film weaves their stories of first-time voting and electoral organizing from the presidential election of 2016 to the 2018 midterms, and explores the intersections of immigration, voting rights and racial justice. Watch the trailer on the film's website https://www.firstvotefilm.com.

Director Biography - Yi Chen

Washington D.C. based documentary filmmaker Yi Chen is a Soros Equality Fellow and DC Arts and Humanities Fellow. Yi's work has been supported by the Ford Foundation JustFilms, Open Society Foundations, Center for Asian American Media, ITVS, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Kartemquin Films and Southern Documentary Fund. Her debut feature First Vote is an official selection at the 2020 AFI DOCS, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, CAAMFest, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and more. The film launches in virtual cinema nationwide followed by broadcast premiere on WORLD Channel's American ReFramed series in October. It's also currently on a campus and community tour across the US through GOOD DOCS and its GOOD TALKS speaker series. Yi holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University and established C35 Films to tell underrepresented stories.