YI CHEN ON SHAKE THE COSMOS
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What is the process like for choosing the documentary subjects? What types of conversations have started because of the documentary? This week, Yi Chen and I discuss her film First Vote and the impact the process and aftermath have had on the subjects and her.
YI CHEN, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Yi Chen is a documentary filmmaker based in Washington, DC. Her work explores the intersection of racial justice, immigration, and democracy. She is a 2019 Open Society Foundations Soros Equality Fellow and 2020 DC Arts and Humanities Fellow. Her first feature length documentary FIRST VOTE received grants from the Ford Foundation JustFilms, CAAM, ITVS, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Kartemquin Films and Southern Documentary Fund. The film participated in pitches at HotDocs, DOC NYC Pitch Perfect, Tribeca IF/Then, AFI Docs, and Double Exposure Film Festival.
It was workshopped through DCTV Docu Work-In-Progress Lab, Kartemquin Films KTQ Lab, UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, and Docs in Progress Fellowship Program. Her previous film CHINATOWN, about the activism of long-time residents to keep Wah Luck House affordable for low income seniors to stay in DC Chinatown, won IndieCapitol Awards Best Documentary Short and aired on PBS station WHUT. The film was featured by the Washington Post, NPR and NBC4. Yi holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University.
Find the documentary at https://www.firstvotefilm.com/
or https://worldchannel.org/episode/arf-first-vote/
Watch the Documentary Panel Discussion at https://youtu.be/0pNQI_141CY
Also, did you know that you can get yourself a copy of the Shake The Cosmos Journal as part of the personal development course? Check it out here.
Episode Transcript
Abhishek: Hi everyone, this is Abhishek from shakethecosmos.com. My guest today is Yi Chen. She's a documentary filmmaker based in Washington, DC, and her work explores the intersection of racial justice, immigration, and democracy. She directed and produced First Vote. I just recently watched this documentary, go check it out, firstvotefilm.com. And we're going to talk about the background context, the impetus behind this documentary, and then also the diverse set of subjects she had in the documentary and dive into some of the themes. And, if you're listening right now, hit the follower, subscribe a button. And if you liked this episode, give it a five-star rating that helps me in the organic search results.
Thank you so much for being on the show. Yi, really appreciate your time.
Yi: Thank you so much for having me.
Abhishek: Awesome.
Can you just give a little bit of background about you for the listeners who are listening right now?
Yi: Sure. so like you said, I'm a filmmaker based in Washington, DC. I was born and grew up in Shanghai and I came to the United States in 2003 to attend graduate school. I got my MFA from American universities, film program. I have worked since in journalism and, nonfiction storytelling. for nonprofits and museums. I also taught filmmaking at George Mason University in Virginia for about two years. And, 2020 is my first time voting.
Abhishek: Well, we're going to talk about that and more so would love to kind of jump into the movie, the documentary and I'm excited because I'm actually, you're the first filmmaker on the podcast that I have.
So what was the impetus behind this film? why did you decide to take on this project?
Yi: Yeah. So, one of the reasons is I was becoming a first-time voter myself. So at the time, backing late 2016, early 2017, when I started working on the project, I was interested in exploring voting and democratic participation from voters in my community and both sides. I was particularly interested in first-time voters, living in swing states.
Abhishek: Great. So, and how has this experience been like compared to some of the other projects that you've done in past?
Yi: Yeah, so this is my first feature-length documentary and, I've done commission projects, but I think in terms of comparison, I would probably compare it to my last independent documentary, which was a half-hour documentary called Chinatown. So that film follows three Chinatown residents in DC and their activism to keep their building affordable in Chinatown because of gentrification. The building owner wanted to sell the building. so, so that was the story and, yeah, and I wanted to compare it to that project because they're both my, what I call independent project, meaning that I am responsible for, getting the project funded, essentially.
So first of all, it's very different because, for Chinatown, the story happened in the same city that I lived in. So in terms of filming, when the characters would just call me and tell me something is going on, I can go there in 30 minutes and film. So first of all, it's very different in that sense that the characters, living in North Carolina and Ohio, so it takes more planning, in terms of, production, and it involves a lot more traveling, as well.
And, and the film is also different because some of the characters, they go to political conventions and events. So in terms of getting access to those, political events were something new to me that I had to navigate. And yeah, I mean, it's also a longer film, so, requires more, more fundraising and distribution is a little bit different, as well.
Abhishek: That's great.
What's the response been like from the First Vote? What are some things that have happened that maybe you or the team didn't expect?
Yi: Yeah. So the response has been amazing and rewarding. So audience members, have told me that the film has energized them to stay hopeful and civically engaged and inspired them to ask questions on those whose beliefs are different from them.
And some of them told me that they watched the film, with their family members, that have different political views. In terms of what we didn't expect. I would say the biggest thing is pandemic because we were finishing the film. We picture locked early this year, and we were finishing the film. So, I worked with a composer in February and finished that in March. and in March and April, I was supposed to go to New York to do color and sound, but, because of the pandemic, I couldn't do that. So we had to figure out how to finish the film, remotely, working with, people in, New York. Distribution to distribution was, impacted as well.
Festivals weren't sure if they were going to cancel or if they were going to go virtual and this was something new that nobody had ever done before. So, the whole industry was, really trying to figure out what, how to respond. Yeah, all of the festivals, the film, so the film premiered in May, and so all of the festivals have been virtual, and, and everything has been virtual so far.
Abhishek: Yeah. And what's, what's the, what do you feel has been the impact of things being virtual? as that the pandemic, of course, nobody can anticipate, and, yeah, what are some, what are some of the good things that have come out of that?
Yi: So virtual certainly makes it harder to interact with the audience or see the audience and hear from them directly. However, on the other hand, virtual has opened up, in terms of, accessibility to the audience outside certain geographical locations where a festival might be, because it used to be that you have to be physically there to attend a film festival, but right now, because everything is virtual and unless a festival geo-blocks, it’s usually they're available to audiences in the United States.
So, no matter where you are, you can watch the film from your home on your computer, on your TV. So I know one of the festivals, they had attendees from 27 different states, and then we also have community panels so that, we had an audience from all over the country watching.
Abhishek: That's amazing. And I do want to do a plug, I guess, how, if someone's just listening right now and they're just super excited. Well, how can they go and check out the film?
Yi: Yeah. So the film is right now, streaming on worldchannel.org It’s part of the America Reframed series, and we'll be streaming till November 19th. And the film also just opened in AFI silver theater, a virtual screening room available in, United States and its territories. So if you want to support, a nonprofit theater, you can also watch it, through AFI silver theater.
Abhishek: Yeah, I've seen it, through the world channel. So if you're listening right now, click on the link in the podcast description and go check it out as well.
Yi: The film will also play at the Hawaii international film festival and for your audience in Canada, it will play at the Vancouver Asian film festival as well, and that's available to a Canadian audience.
Abhishek: That's amazing. I love how the whole virtual aspect and people can watch this now in multiple countries and the accessibility.
Diving a little bit deeper into the movie itself, when I, watched it, I felt the tone was fairly neutral. Was that intentional? or you could just call me wrong. What did the team do in the creation process to keep it that way?
Yi: Yeah, it was intentional because, for me, and it's just not with this film, it's with, my film, I, as a filmmaker, it's my intention that I don't want to tell the audience what you think. It's not an advocacy film. So I want to leave space for the audience to think for themselves and decide for themselves. and this is a very complex story. It explores many complex issues and I also wanted to add nuance and humanize political perspective.
So, I certainly don't want to tell the audience what to think. So yeah, so that was my intention, and in terms of how we did it in the creation process, I was thinking more about from a storytelling perspective.
For me, it's always, the story first vs. issue.
So I was thinking about things like how can each scene move the story forward and how can I keep the audience engaged and keep them interested in watching, and how can this scene, or this moment reveal something new about the characters and something, something about the characters that for us to know who that person is.
And, also in the editing process, thinking about. "How can we create a story arc?" So there is a beginning, middle, and an end, and there is story development. I also always think about setup and payoffs, that, that audience would feel. That makes the audience feel rewarding watching the movie when they're set up and payoffs.
So these are the things that I tend to think about more, when I, when I'm editing, and I would say one thing that helped was we, one of the editors, he started a Trello storyboard. So the whole editing was also remote. I was in DC and I worked with two editors. One of them, he lived in, he lived in New York and, the other editor, she's in San Francisco.
So we had a storyboard, through this software called Trello. It's a very visual storyboard that we had screenshots and we laid out the structure of act one, act two, act three, what are the scenes? So, that, helped, with the editing process.
Abhishek: And then, during the editing, was there like some scenes that you were like, “Oh my God, I want to, include this one.” But I know it's sort of packed at punch, within the hour that I saw. So, it must've been a tough process to edit.
Yi: Yeah. I filmed a lot of footage. I filmed hundreds of hours of footage. The production took about two years and I had four characters and I usually spend about a week with them each time and so I, the film constantly because this is an observational style film.
I'm following real life, and I don't know what will happen the next moment. I, I don't want to miss anything. So, I tend to feel as much as I could. But of course, sometimes, I turn off the camera, when I eat with the characters and I talk with them when there's like a two-hour-long car drive.
There was a lot of footage and, there were a lot of interesting secondary characters that I interviewed, that just didn't end up the, in the film. But I did edit some of the footage into very short clips and, and they're available on the website. If you go to, firstvotefilm.com under resources, there are short clips, that you can watch and also, for the educational component of the film that teachers can also use in classrooms.
Abhishek: Great again, if you're listening and go to firstvotefilm.com to check it out. So getting a little bit into the movie itself and some facts stood out to me.
I didn't know some of these things, so these were eye-opening. So until, one of them was:
until 1952 federal law, barred immigrants of Asian descent from becoming US Citizens and voting today Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing population in the US, more than 11 million Asian Americans will be able to vote in 2020.
So, I was just surprised to learn these things. And what significance does this carry, carry for the documentary?
Yi: So it was surprising to me too when I learned that, Asian Americans didn't have voting rights until 1952, which is quite recent. So I wanted to include it in the documentary to show that we can take our voting rights for granted.
Some of the themes that I was exploring in the film, like immigration, voting rights, and racial justice. I also found that there are connections between all of them. for example, immigration laws, how, immigration laws can shape the demographics of this country.
Before 1965, there's a racial quota for Asian-Americans, in terms of becoming citizens. And if it wasn't because of the immigration law of 1965, Jennifer's family wouldn't have been able to immigrate to the United States. So I saw a lot of connections between these, different themes, and, in terms of voting rights, in North Carolina during the 2018 midterms, there was a voter ID amendment on the ballot.
And Kaiser talked about the Shelby versus Holder Supreme court case that got rid of, part of the voting rights act, which required a federal election or any change to federal election law required clearance from, department of justice. But, that Supreme court case got rid of that requirement.
So each state, for example, the voting ID law was something before that they couldn't do on their own, but now, but since Shelby vs. Holder, a lot of States started to have very strict Voter ID, state laws. Right? So, all of these connections just started to merge. And, even though the scene of Kaiser talking about that, Supreme court case, it's not in the film, but, all these themes started to emerge.
And so I felt it was important to include these larger contexts for us to understand, the present situation.
Abhishek: And then, we started talking about some of the characters as well. And what was the process like for choosing some of the characters?
Yi: Yeah, it took me about five months to find the characters.
I started out looking for first-time voters. Chinese American voters living in swing states on both sides; as two of the characters in the film, they're members of, Chinese Americans for Trump movement.
So, and, all my friends I know in DC, they are Asian Americans on the Democrat side. So I didn't know anyone from that movement. So, I started by asking people I knew, around me. I told them what I was looking for and, do you know anybody who is part of that movement. And, surprising to me if I never asked, I would never know some of them did know someone. So they told me, "Oh, you can talk to this person." So I talked to a lot of people and told them about the film. Most of them talked to me on the phone, but they were very frank that they weren’t willing to, be part of a documentary where I would follow them, for almost two years, until the 2018 midterms.
So in that process, I heard multiple people telling me, and these were Chinese American voters living in Virginia, that they listened to this podcast. This guy in Ohio had this Mandarin language podcast kind of like Rush Limbaugh, a very conservative podcast, that they listen to on a Chinese social media app, WeChat.
So, I looked him up, and I emailed him and then I talked to him on the phone. I asked him if I could go to Ohio and film him doing a podcast. And he said, yes. So yeah, similar to Sue. People told me, "Oh, you should, look up this, a woman, who is running for Congress in 2016 in North Carolina."
It was her first time running for office. She is a realistic business person, and she won the Republican primary, but she lost in the general election. And her district happens to be the same district where Kaiser and Jennifer lived, so 4th district of North Carolina.
Abhishek: It is interesting. You mentioned, even within your social circles, there were people, that started helping you out and finding some of these connections. That's great.
Yi: And yea, it's really interesting. Lance has podcasts that reach people way outside of Ohio. I remember the first day after I filmed with him, he put me on the spot. He was doing his podcast, and I was recording, and then at the end he was like, "Oh, by the way, I have this director here, filming me and, let's ask her to say something."
So I was totally unprepared and, I didn't know what to say. And he put me on the spot. He wanted me to say something on his podcast.
Yeah. And then actually the people who told me about him heard the podcast on the same day and they messaged me on WeChat and they said, "Oh, wow."
Abhishek: And yeah, I mean, I think these connections you're making and the characters are in different places and have different views. Was there ever talk of like them meeting together, or having a meal together?
Yi: Pre pandemic they really would have, particularly with festival premiere I would, I would probably have invited all of them, to the festival premiere. But this film premiered after the pandemic. So everything has been virtual
A few weeks ago, the University of Colorado, Boulder hosted a panel discussion with all four of the characters. So that was the first time all four of them met each other, virtually and they were on the same panel.
Abhishek: What was that like?
Yi: I was quite nervous, to be honest before the panel because this was the first time and, they all feel very, I know they all feel very strongly, in terms of their views. So I wasn't sure, what it would look like. but it went, well, and the moderator had great questions for everybody.
So yeah, so for anyone interested, this is the first one that we've done. The only one we've done with all four characters. So if anybody's interested, the recording is available. And if you go to firstvotefilm.com and go to screenings, find the screening at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and then you'll see there's a link to the recording for the panel.
Abhishek: Awesome. I'll be sure to include that link to that in the podcast description as well, to make it easy. I want to jump a little bit into some of the moments that were in the documentary that stood out to me at least. there was a scene where Jennifer Ho talks about, "people don't know who Asian-Americans are" also, she's saying, "how we can't find a common ground." And, I’m seeing her husband who's presumably white is sitting right next to her, and he's just silently listening. And so what was the significance of having her husband there in this scene?
Yi: So I remember Jennifer said people don't know who Asian-Americans are, was right after her class, after she taught, Asian-Americans in the South because, and she was walking outside the classroom, and like walking on campus, she said that, so, the scene where the husband was, I filmed that at the outside of their house, on the, on the porch.
Her husband was there because I wanted to interview them together. That's why I had both of them there, and it was a very long interview. I interviewed them for about, probably an hour. So we talked about a lot of things, and I didn't think about the importance of having her husband there, the intention was really to, interview them together.
It just so happens that in the editing, in terms of, the story that was a part of the interview that ended up in the final film. It just so happens that it was Jennifer talking, and her husband was there and, he didn't say anything. So yeah, it was just part of a very long interview I did with both of them, and it was very early morning and Jennifer was very energetic. She's a morning person. I was still waking up. She had been up for two hours already. She already walked her dog and everything. And so she was very, energetic, but her husband just had his coffee and I think he was still waking up, like me.
Abhishek: Yeah. It's kind of fun learning these little quirks.
And then there's another scene that comes to mind, which is, there's an emotional, and almost like a crying protestor who says, she's just frustrated that her parents will vote for Trump. And she thinks it's because they've watched Fox news and, what role does media play in influencing the opinions of the characters? Or I just didn't see as much discussion about media, or was there a particular reason why?
Yi: well, I did, somehow you were, Keep the question. Yeah. You were cut out for most of the questions.
Abhishek: Thank you. I'll just repeat it. So in, one of the scenes, there is, there is an emotional protestor and she's just frustrated that her parents will vote for Trump.
And she thinks it's because they watch Fox news.
So, what role does media play in influencing the opinions of some of the characters? I just didn't see as much discussion of media. And was there a reason why?
Yi: Yeah. that's a good question. So, your first question. So when I was filming with Sue, actually the day, if you remember that scene was at the North Carolina Republican convention - that was the day Trump announced that he decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. So that's why there were protestors outside and they were protesting that mostly that and other things.
It's interesting because, after the convention, I went home with Sue and she was watching, Fox news coverage. I interviewed her while she was watching TV, about her thoughts on, withdrawing from, leaving the Paris climate accord. And, if you remember the scene where, Lance was in the car and driving to the Ohio Republican convention, with, Trump.
He was in the car and he was listening to the radio and the radio announced that the president was coming to Ohio that day. So I asked him what he was listening to and it' was Fox business. So I did film these moments where they were listening or watching media. At one point, in one of the rough cuts stage, I did include, and I wanted to include a lot more. I feel like rough cuts were more issue-driven. It was me going down to different issues. Oh, media let's show this and different issues.
So, it was in the cut at some point but again, going back to my approach in terms of "story first," I wanted the film to be engaging, and that was one of the most important things to me. So that means, certain scenes maybe touch on different issues, but they're not necessarily the most interesting or engaging scenes. Right. So, it's a decision that I had to make, what to keep in the film and, and whatnot, so, it just turns out that those things didn't end up in the film. and I wish, but that's the other thing, right?
Like, for an article, I feel like if someone were to write an article, they can go down the list and talk about each issue. But with documentaries, there is a limitation of what footage can we get.
And particularly for this film, it's not an interview driven film. It is capturing moments from real life and seeing all the characters, doing something. Unfortunately, I feel like a documentary is just not a film that is going to cover everything.
Abhishek: Again, if you're listening right now, go check it out at firstvotefilm.com. I think it's interesting how much content there is that is not in one hour. And it makes me almost want to see if there's, there's going to be a second version, like a follow-up or something.
Another fact that stood out to me as I was watching, is towards the end that says Asian Americans or immigrants are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the US by 2055.
And I've been sharing that with many friends now. Sort of playing that out, what takes place in the documentary, but also now kind of moving forward to 2055, what kinds of changes do you see happening?
Yi: Yea. So, I was recently on the panel with the chair of the CPAC, the Congressional APA Caucus, representative Congresswoman Judy Chu. And I love what she said:
"Asian-Americans have gone from being marginalized to being the margin of victory."
I really love that quote from her So, in terms of the changes, Asian Americans didn't have voting rights until 1952, but we're now the fastest-growing segment of eligible voters in the United States, and more than 11 million will be able to vote this year; particularly, Asian Americans are swing voters in a growing number of key swing districts.
As you see in the film that number is changing too. So, the number in the film you see is 5% or more, Asian American, voters are the margin of victory in 79 counties and 102 congressional districts. And 2018 was the year that, a record number of Asian representatives were elected in Congress. On that panel, North Carolina's Asian-Americans Together, which is a civic engagement organization, North Carolina, their executive director, was also on that panel and she said that Asian Americans have requested nine times the amount of mailing ballots this year.
So, I think that we're seeing, a more growing number of Asian American voters and hopefully a higher voter turnout this year.
Abhishek: We're sort of living the living in these changes as they are happening now. As we're sort of wrapping up here, can you share any specific events or anything you'd like the podcast audience to go check it out?
Yi: I would love your podcast audience to watch the film. It's streaming at worldchannel.org. It's part of the America Reframed Series, and it's streaming until November 19th. It's also playing at AFI Silver theater, virtual screening room, so if you want to support a great nonprofit theater, which, is actually in my hometown, DC, Maryland, area, one, one of my favorite, nonprofit theater, the film will also play at the Hawaii international film festival in November. And for the audience in Canada, the film will screen at the Vancouver Asian film festival, and follow us on social media @firstvotefilm, and visit our website. firstvotefilm.com. We have, recordings from previous panels and we also have, resources available on our, our website as well.
Abhishek: Awesome. Thank you so much again for being on the show. And again, if you're listening, go check out firstvotefilm.com and check out the movie. Thanks again.
Yi: Thanks so much for having me.