Growing up as a Filipino woman, there were no shows, movies or character that I could specifically identify with culturally. Either there was no asian representation or what was considered 'asian' felt like a hodge-podge of different East Asian cultures which is not the same.
Throughout this past year (2020), I have had an increased interest in film and watching a diverse amount of movies from horror, to period films and even sci-fi. As I have become more familiarized with social media sites such as twitter and seen conversations regarding the public eye's best actors and actresses, I became more and more aware of the lack of diversity in film. And because film is one of the most profitable, buzzed and hyped medias of our generation, it is now important more than ever to include diverse actors and actresses of color. Asians historically have been excluded from film with rules against interracial relationships to being type-casted for roles specifically made 'for asians'. By including film, an important category of visual culture in our classroom, we can examine and critique more about the problems of diversity in Hollywood and who is seen and not seen on such a platform. To bring this into the art classroom, lesson plans can be related to film posters, fashion, film stills and even examine how the performance and editing of the film affects our perception. This social issue later became the inspiration behind my teacher example for my Middle level clinicals at St. Mary's. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/t-magazine/asian-american-actors-representation.html https://time.com/5622913/asian-american-representation-hollywood/ |
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Golden Apple Civic Engagement ProjectDuring our 2020 remote Scholar Institute 3 (SI3) at Golden Apple, we were still under heavy lockdown and had to do a project/lesson plan for students. Because I am so passionate about diversity and representation, I created my project based off of film and the Oscars, making an entire Google Website where students would be creating their own movie posters based on their personal identities and stories.
Check it out here! |