Two Very Different Personal Quests...
In the Grace Lee Project, the road was not a central feature to the film. Rather, the quest was used more as the theme. Grace Lee had a goal, which she used the road to help her accomplish, but the road was not the foremost theme. She documented her journey through the people she interviewed, rarely, if ever showing portions of the journey she had to take to get to those people. Angela Shelton, however, had the road be the central feature to her film. Use of objects such as the RV and symbology such as signs or views of her on the road helped to make the road the central feature. Angela too had a goal, or quest, but the road symbolized her journey rather than existing in the background as the means of travel.
The Grace Lee Project made the road "raced" since she was focusing on Korean Americans- she was focusing on one ethnicity and one gender (females), which were a significant part of the film. She did not however, exclude races or genders from her film, as she included short pieces on the history of the name Grace Lee in early America, and also included interviews with men on the Grace Lees that they knew. In Angela Shelton's film, the women were sort of defined by their experiences with men, therefore making the film "gendered" towards men, which I would assume was not the original intention, as she set out to interview women. Angela's film was not "raced" though- race was not a defining feature or a dominant theme- she interviewed any Angela Sheltons she could find, regardless of who they were, and treated all in the same way. She did not pruposely include nor exclude anyone or their story based on race.
The Grace Lee Project and Searching for Angela Shelton were distinctly different films, even though they both set out on a journey towards a goal while using the road as a means of completing this goal. Beyond that, however, the differences are blatantly obvious, as one focuses on the quest and the other focuses on the road in order to tell their stories.