The Not So One-Dimensional Grace Lee Project
When I realized for the second week in a row we were going to be watching another documentary based somewhat around a name, I slightly cringed. I knew a little about both Searching for Angela Shelton and The Grace Lee Project before watching them in class, but my assumptions were wrong. I thought that both films were triumphant, change the way women think about feminism movies. After watching these two films, I realized how much they varied.
The road and quest in Searching for Angela Shelton seems to be centered about the director. She uses and abuses the camera and takes away from what the film could be. She uses tactics that tailor EVERY story of an Angela Shelton around her own. The quest is supposed to be used as a passage for recovery. It ends up leaving open wounds, unanswered questions, and a bitter after taste.
As for The Grace Lee Project, her attempts to search out individuals seem much more sincere than Shelton’s. She uses the road to simply learn. It seems that her she had no ultimate goal in this film and thus it wasn’t tailored to one subject. Instead of finding out everything about the original Grace Lee, we learn about many different Grace Lee’s and their similarities. Grace Lee and Angela Shelton both abuse their use of the camera, because they can. But they do it in different ways. Grace Lee seems to not care about herself throughout the film as in Angela Shelton. Although both are looking to “find themselves� on the road, it’s as if you forget about this task in The Grace Lee Project. Instead you start to indulge yourself in the lives of others and learn a thing or two. Angela Shelton’s task is definitely known throughout the entirety of the film and is instilled into your brain about her goals.
I think the true difference between The Grace Lee Project and Searching for Angela Shelton is the Grace Lee tries to rid the stereotypes of typical young Asian women. It seems that Grace Lee is trying to show that although many of these women are alike, they are NOT just the smart, reserved, pretty girls. Grace Lee shows that people are not one dimensional, which Angela Shelton almost tries to do the opposite. It seems to me that Angela Shelton is trying to prove that we are all the same and we must come together as one. Grace Lee is showing that individuality is beautiful.
The road in The Grace Lee Project is definitely gendered AND raced. For example, throughout the film Grace Lee does various quirky animations of the typical Asian. She shows different various stereotypical statistics and also asks citizens about the Grace Lee that they know. Most of the people say the same thing about each Grace Lee. This shows that the stereotype of this race of girls is known throughout many communities. It also shows that Grace Lee’s are raced and profiled. Grace Lee continuously gets told by other Grace Lee’s the pressure to meet these almost impossible expectations. Searching for Angela Shelton is also gendered and raced. Shelton tries to find many different people with her name, and finds African Americans and Caucasian Americans. It’s funny that how this film uses these two races to prove they are not being race oriented, but never hit any other races. Angela Shelton also focuses her film around the woman. She is consumed with trying to convince women to take a stand. Although there are extremely nice and caring men throughout the film, it seems that they could be an underlying tone of the anti-male throughout the film.