Valerie Soe

A feature documentary about the Auntie Sewing Squad, a grassroots collective founded by performance artist Kristina Wong in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. As PPE shortages spread across the U.S., hundreds of volunteers—mostly BIPOC women, along with Uncles and non-binary members—turned their homes into sewing hubs producing cloth masks for vulnerable communities and essential workers. The group quickly grew from a few dozen activists into a nationwide network of more than 800 volunteers. Beyond providing masks, the collective used mutual aid to support historically marginalized communities and openly discuss feminism, anti-racism, allyship, and resistance to systemic inequality.

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A look at the Taiwan Love Boat, where college-aged Taiwanese-Americans get closer to their history, their culture and each other.

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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.

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This documentary tells the story of a broad, multi-ethnic coalition--undocumented residents from Mexico, a European American minister, Cambodian refugees who had survived the Killing Fields, city officials, college students and others--at the Oak Park apartments in Oakland, CA who in 2000 won an historic settlement of almost one million dollars against their landlord, one of the worst of the "dirty dozen" of landlords in Oakland. Not only did this coalition win monetary damages for forty-four households, but they also forced the landlord to sell the building to two non-profit organizations. Since that time, the tenants have moved into brand new apartments that are permanently affordable, The Oak Park Story traces the stories of this coalition of activists and profiles immigrants overcoming tremendous odds, both here and in their native countries.

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A collection of shorts made by various directors in response to 9/11.

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'Mixed Blood' takes a personal view of interracial relationships between Asian Americans and non-Asian Americans. Soe combines interviews with over 30 concerned individuals, text, and clips from scientific films and classic miscegenation dramas. This videotape explores the complexities of cross-cultural intimacy and whether such choices have public and political implications.

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Valerie Soe catalogues a visual compendium of orientalist and exoticizing representations of Asian women snatched from American film and television. Juxtaposed with text from mail-order bride catalogs, men's magazines, and popular literature, these clips from over 25 films and television programs explicate the orientalism and exoticism prevalent in mass media images of Asian women.

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Briefly explores the title phrase, taking a common misperception and turns it on its head. It hopefully provokes the viewer to confront his or her own prejudices and misconceptions about Asian Pacific Americans and the contradictions inherent in those beliefs.

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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.

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Get ready to play a game of death… and another… and another. This wild documentary dives into the Bruce Lee exploitation craze.

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A pretentious underground filmmaker struggles with his masterpiece while a scuzzy punkoid chick tries to keep her band from fading into obscurity.

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Documentary that highlights 18 women and covers a period of time from the 50's to the 90's. The women chosen were selected because they represent the real diversity within both feminism and independent film and video. They range in age from 65 to 25. They are black, white, Puerto Rican, Yugoslavian, Asian American, biracial. They are straight, gay and bisexual. What they share is a need to express their own interpretations of what American culture is and could be and a belief that this work is made particularly powerful through the media.

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A feature documentary about the Auntie Sewing Squad, a grassroots collective founded by performance artist Kristina Wong in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. As PPE shortages spread across the U.S., hundreds of volunteers—mostly BIPOC women, along with Uncles and non-binary members—turned their homes into sewing hubs producing cloth masks for vulnerable communities and essential workers. The group quickly grew from a few dozen activists into a nationwide network of more than 800 volunteers. Beyond providing masks, the collective used mutual aid to support historically marginalized communities and openly discuss feminism, anti-racism, allyship, and resistance to systemic inequality.

Open details →

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.

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