Cal State Long Beach kicked off the beginning of Women’s History Month by screening filmmaker Valerie Soe’s two most popular documentaries, “The Oak Park Story” and “Chinese Gardens.”
Soe, a professor in the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University, has produced 10 films in her career. Throughout the years, her work has been merited by grants, fellowships and awards, such as the James D. Phelan Art Award in Video and the Best Bay Area Short at Golden Gate Awards.
Roughly 40 students attended the event, where they had the opportunity to ask Soe multiple questions about her work in an informal Q-and-A discussion after the screening.
“The Oak Park Story” tells the story of Cambodian and Mexican immigrants living in Oak Park, a housing project in Oakland, Calif., in the late ‘90s, when sewage backups, bug infestation and even exposure to asbestos plagued the residents of Oak Park.
After noticing the deteriorated living conditions of the housing project, residents worked with city officials and the media to sue their negligent landlord. They won their battle in November 2000 and decided to split the $950,000 settlement so it could be used toward improving living conditions and the future education of the children in Oak Park.
Soe said she and her co-producer, Russel Jeung, wanted to share this story to inspire others and show that a lower economic status doesn’t excuse an oversight of basic rights.
“I wished for the film to be a template for other minority groups and activists who are fighting for a purpose,” Soe said as she introduced her documentary.
Junior journalism major Jaime Brennan said the film was motivating.
“I found it inspiring that the two cultures came together to fight for something and that they looked out for one another,” he said.
The second film, “Chinese Gardens,” told the widely unknown story of the discrimination, segregation and violence suffered by Chinese immigrants in Port Townshend, Wash., during the late 1800s.
This film won the Best Film with an Immigration Theme at the Humboldt Film Festival in 2013.
“The major part of this story, unlike Oak Park, is what isn’t there, rather than what is,” Soe said. “This story was hard to tell because of a lack of living links to the time period.”
Students who attended the screenings received copies of the films. Soe’s other works include documentaries such as “Mixed Blood” and “Picturing Oriental Girls: A (Re) Educational Videotape.”
