The following videos from Academic Video Online cover different aspects of the Asian American diasporic experience. Users must have valid Carlow University credentials to access this content.
Tapestry: Asian Women in America
Through archival photographs, oral histories and folk songs by Nobuko Miyamoto, this video weaves the history of 200 years of Asian women's experiences. It begins with early Asian immigration to the U.S. from China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines
Tapestry: Asian Women in America (a.k.a. Tapestry II). Video/DVD, Third World Newsreel, 1991.
Asian Americans Series (PBS)
This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation.
In an era of U.S. expansion, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Eventually barred by anti-Asian laws, they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants.”
An American-born generation straddles their birth country and their familial homelands in Asia. Family loyalties are tested during WWII, when Japanese Americans are held in detention camps and brothers are on opposite sides of the battle.
During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority, and suspected as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office.
During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The aftermath of the Vietnam War brings new immigrants and refugees.
At the turn of the millennium, Asian Americans have become the fastest growing population in the U.S. It is a time of tremendous change, as the country tackles urgent debates over immigration, race and economic disparity.
Asian Americans. Video/DVD, Public Broadcasting Service, 2020.
Breaking the Model: Asian American Shorts Collection
Breaking the Model: Stories of Asian American History and Presence brings together four different short documentaries exploring immigration, genealogy, gentrification and resilience within America.
A Portrait of Us (Sarah Park, 17 min). A short documentary that follows two Korean grandparents as they navigate a modern-day reckoning of their immigration story and grandparenthood.
Conversations at the Register (Brandon Soun and Lan Nguyen, 9 min) The film tells the story of KH Supermarket, a Cambodian-owned grocery store in the heart of Cambodia Town, Long Beach that was forced to close due to gentrification.
What Remains (Ginger Yifan Chen, 5 min) Directed by Ginger Yifan Chen. Over a series of photographs, Georgette Quan tells the story of her family's shrimping business, from the age of the Chinese Exclusion Act to its present-day status as a state park.
Sincerely Mine Okubo (Yuka Murakami, 16 min) Directed by Yuka Murakami Picturesque biography of Miné Okubo, a Japanese-American artist best known for her graphic memoir Citizen 13660 (1946), chronicling the WWII incarceration while she was an internee.
Breaking the Model: Asian American Shorts Collection. Directed by Y.C. Ginger et al., Collective Eye Films, 2022.
Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day In March
Following the aftermath of the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta, this film chronicles how the Asian American community came together to fight back against hate. Offering a conversation about race, class and gender, the film takes a deep dive into this critical moment of racial reckoning, exploring the struggles, triumphs and achievements of AAPI communities.
Rising Against Asian Hate: One Day In March. Directed by T. Yu, Public Broadcasting Service, 2022.