Design, Motion Graphics

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This short film, created in collaboration with my mom, is my great-grandmother’s immigration story.

Many Chinese family immigration stories are entwined within the United States exclusion era. Some of the laws almost entirely banned Chinese from entering the country. Wing and Young Shee Leong implemented complicated measures in order to start their life in the United States. Their story was a secret until now.

SOLUTION

My mom had done the research, written the script, and recorded the narration. What she had me do was the entire visual component. While I was given much freedom with the project, my mom had some input and it was a collaborative process. When it came to design decisions, I always questioned, “What will be the most impactful way to visualize this point?”

For example, she initially wanted to show an image of the Supreme Court building while discussing the court cases. But I suggested using an image of the court itself because I assumed they were all 'old, white men.' And sure enough, they were indeed all 'old, white men'—very different from the more diverse court we have today. These were (and are) the people making the decisions about minorities and others at the highest judicial level.

Some details might be lost but are still important to the narrative. The map used for the sea voyage is from the 1920s, most notably when the ship passes the "Territories of Hawaii." The Supreme Court scene transitions to the paper people below it because despite what the rulings were, there were "underground" ways in which Chinese were immigrating into the U.S. The file folder at the end shows how my mom's research that started with just two documents turned into a whole folder of others. This was inspired by the fact that she has folders of papers that came from uncovering the story behind the initial two.

For the promotional art/postcard, it was both convenient and intentional that the images of my great-grandparents are round and the other man was a rectangle. The shape and his partially-seen image invokes intrigue as to why he is different from the other two. The documents that started this journey are faded in the background as decorative elements.