Angela Shelton vs. Grace Lee
For both of these movies, the quest is the whole point of the documentary. Grace Lee's point was to find other women named Grace Lee and see if they actually are like the stereotypical asian girl who is supposed to be nice, cute, quiet, conservative, and pratically perfect. In Searcing for Angela Shelton, her quest was to find out what other women were going through across the U.S. and if she was alone with the abuse, she went through in the past. In the end, they both seemed to have closure, where Grace Lee figured that there are many other ways to define yourself besides your name and that in itself sets you away from others of the same name, race, gender or class. Angela Shelton, on the other hand, got to talk to her father but the real closure was that as long as she was going to be able to forgive what happened in the past in order to move on. In both cases, the women learned something about themselves and other women through their quest. Without the use of the quest, they probably wouldn't have been able to recover (Angela) or be able to happily accept their own name because of the lack of perfection (Grace). The quest is what drove the documentary and kept it going until each of them was satisfied with what they found out about other women.
As for the use of the road, there was many differences between the two documentaries. For instance, the road was an important in Searching for Angela Shelton because there was always shots of the RV and Angela was driving so she had control of where they went and for how long. The road played a very significant in the document for Angela Shelton. As for Grace Lee, the road got her to each of her destinations but it wasn't the main event. She took the bus and other ways to the locations she was interested in. There was never a time when she was in the driver's seat though. She was more wrapped in the quest and she took as long as she needed in each place but she didn't have a set schedule like Angela who wanted to travel around the U.S. in 60 days. To Grace, the road was only a means of transportation but for Angela, the road was under her control and she took it to get away and have the power to do so. In this sense, I do think the use of the road in both of the films, is an example of why the road is raced. The road was built mostly by the minorities of the U.S. but it was built for the white people, and specifically the white male. White Priviledge is a factor because a lot of things are given to white people, and the use of the road is one and always will be. Grace, on the other hand, didn't really even value the road as a significant factor in her documentary besides to get her to her destination. This could have something to do with race where Angela felt that since she was going on a journey, she needed to be in complete control of it, so she was the driver, the main focus of the film, and had control of all components of the interviews. She had a dominant, controlling role which is a stereotype of white people. Grace Lee, on the other hand, focused more on the stories of the other women she interviewed so most of the time when Grace was talking, it was just her voice because there was something else being shown through the camera. Grace played the main role but it wasn't dominant at all, it was more passive which is a stereotype of Asian people.