Love Boat: Taiwan
A look at the Taiwan Love Boat, where college-aged Taiwanese-Americans get closer to their history, their culture and each other.
Valerie Soe
Director
Also Directed by Valerie Soe
A collection of shorts made by various directors in response to 9/11.
The Chinese Gardens looks at the lost Chinese community in Port Townsend, WA, examining anti-Chinese violence in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s and drawing connections between past and present race relations in the United States. Through text, brief interviews, and images of the empty spaces of Port Townsend's former Chinatown, the film examines early instances of racism against the Chinese in the U.S., from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 through various lynchings, beatings, and murders. The Chinese Gardens also documents Chinese American resistance to these crimes, illuminating the hidden history of that tumultuous time.
This is a short anti-racist film trying to invoke and combat stereotypes. I'm not sure how succesful it is, but it is still written about in Asian American film studies. Clearly as the film shows all Orientals (a term that Edward Said has helped denaturalize) do NOT look the same!
Joel Hunt served as a combat engineer from 1998-2007, with multiple tours in Iraq. While there, he endured more than 15 roadside bombs, and experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Today, with the help of his dog, Barrett, he uses sports to push through the challenges of having a TBI.
