Angela vs. Grace
Both Angela Shelton and Grace Lee use their documentary road films to embark on their personal quests. Angela Shelton's use of the camera embraces more of a gendered road.... by this I mean that Angela really seeks to unite women across the country. However, Angela's story seemed to be selfish and self-seeking. Angela continued to prove that her film was more of self-discovery quest. Grace Lee sought to discover a stereotype not only about women but about Asian-Americans. Grace Lee's film focused more on individual identities and other Grace Lees' stories.
An interesting observation is how the "road story" almost gets lost in Grace Lee's film as she dives into individuals' stories. You really almost forget that she is on a personal journey as well as a cross-country journey. I really see both documentaries using the road as a way to explore gender (specifically women) roles in American society as well as looking at a stereotype of Asian-American women. You get both gender and racial issues from Grace Lee's film. I thought too it was interesting how Grace Lee sought out to prove the usual Asian-American girl stereotype wrong, but she failed. She found like one or two cases in which Grace Lee's were not "what they were supposed to be". But even then, people still viewed them as what they expected Asian-American girls to be.