By Sara Stokoe
Korean American filmmaker Grace Lee, searches for what really is in a name; from violin prodigy to a pastor's wife to a social activist, she documents how the simple name 'Grace Lee' can be so much and bind so many.
"I think people want to be unique, and I thought I was."
Growing up as an Asian American girl in the small 70,000 person town of Colombia, Missouri, Grace Lee thought she was special; maybe even unique. Then, as she grew older she traveled to Korea, New York, San Francisco and finally Los Angeles where she met and lived around more and more Asian people. It was then that she realized there were a million Grace Lee's.
"Barrier Device," the short film that won Lee a Student Academy Award in the narrative category in 2002, starring Sandra Oh and Suzy Nakamura. Courtesy of Gracelee.net
"I would meet people who kept saying, 'Oh, I know another Grace Lee,' or 'I know this Grace Lee.'" And every time she pressed for more information on these women she got the same response, "'Oh, she's a violin prodigy, or 'She went to Harvard when she was sixteen.'" The name always seemed to be "sending out this image of perfect, quiet, submissive, docile creatures - an image I didn't feel comfortable being." She decided she could not judge these people on hearsay alone, she would have to find out who they really were; why did no one she talked to ever know what happened to the Grace Lee they once knew? And so "The Grace Lee Project" was born.
"The Grace Lee Project" is a "humorous investigation into contemporary Asian American female identity through a diverse cross section of Grace Lee's" that are viewed through the medium of documentary film. "I wanted to find out if it's true what people say or think about Grace Lee (or Asian women in general) as well as reveal a complexity and diversity that you may not have anticipated."
Through this project, Grace Lee has shattered some of the stereotypes about Asian American women, as well as shared the stereotypes that all Grace Lee's have encountered. But there are also a lot of questions that she found herself faced with when distancing herself from a certain kind of idea of what an Asian American woman is, and she hopes to raise these questions through this film. "Should I be ashamed there are so many people who play the violin and are devout Christians??In what way are we shaped by who we are?... In what way are we shaped by what we are trying to resist?"
In the end, Grace Lee the filmmaker discovered a community of Grace Lee's and while they all may share two words in common, there are unique identities within each individual. By tracking down these women who she had always heard of, but never known, and who had often made her feel inadequate, she discovered that "Grace Lee can be whoever she wants to be. I like the possibility that from seeing through these collective Grace Lee's, Grace Lee can be anything."
"The Grace Lee Project" is still a work in progress, but she hopes to finish shooting in the winter and have the film ready for release in the fall of 2004.
Grace Lee was born and raised in Missouri, but as a young woman she traveled to Seoul, Korea, New York, and San Francisco with her final stop being Los Angeles where she currently resides. Before attending film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, Grace Lee directed "Camp Arirang," a documentary about militarized prostitution in South Korea while living there and working at a support and educational center for these women. In 2002, Grace Lee won a Student Academy Award for her short film "Barrier Device" starring Sandra Oh ("Arli$$") and Suzy Nakamura ("The West Wing") as well as a Directors of Guild of America Student Award. In addition to all this success, Lee was named one of Filmmakers Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2002.
This Grace Lee, the filmmaker from Missouri who now lives in L.A., is just beginning what will one day be her own story to tell She is currently working on several projects including a competition in Berlin, Germany to make a short film on Berlin today, as well as writing a script that will hopefully be her first feature.
To learn more about "The Grace Lee Project" or if your name is Grace Lee and you want to fill out a survey for her site, visit her website: www.gracelee.net.
Published: Friday, September 12, 2003
