TRACING HISTORY

Tracing History follows a Chinese American mother and daughter on a road trip to reconnect with their ancestors and each other. They travel to locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Great Basin Desert where their Chinese ancestors worked to build the transcontinental railroad. From Montgomery Pass where 150 year old artifacts lay strewn across the ground, to catfish pond where catfish brought by Chinese laborers still survive a 7,000 feet elevation, to Paoha Island on Mono Lake where Chinese finally found refuge after a racist mob chased them out of town. As they travel and retrace their own history they find the space to open up about the present and deepen their relationship to each other.

CREDITS
Writer: Jalena Keane-Lee
Producer: Reaa Puri
Director of Photography: Aurora Brachman
Editor: Dan Chein
Sound Designer: Adam Myatt
Music: Robert Ouyang Rusli, Benjamin Hunter

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Refresh your mind and open your heart with these short films that bring care and experimentation to the documentary form.