Following the stories of four politically engaged voters during the 2018 midterm elections, First Vote crafts an insightful look at Asian Americans’ diverse experiences at the polls. Taking her camera on the road, Filmmaker Yi Chen introduces us to a diverse cross section of politically engaged Chinese Americans: an avid Trump supporter in Ohio; a Democratic podcaster whose views have alienated his wife’s conservative friends; a gun-toting, Tea Party-favorite in North Carolina; and a progressive University of North Carolina professor. Speaking with distinct political voices, they share the common goal of seeing Asian Americans take their rightful place in American political life.

Yi Chen is a documentary filmmaker based in Washington D.C. She is a Soros Equality Fellow and DC Arts and Humanities Fellow. Her debut feature documentary FIRST VOTE has screened at festivals including AFI DOCS, Hot Docs Doc Shop, CAAMFest, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Houston AAPI Film Festival, Nevertheless Film Festival and Hawaii International Film Festival.

Yi’s work has received funding from the Ford Foundation JustFilms, Open Society Foundations, Center for Asian American Media, ITVS, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Kartemquin Films and Southern Documentary Fund. Her short films have screened at the Environmental Film Festival, SAG Foundation Shorts Showcase, Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival, DC Independent Film Festival, Virginia Film Festival, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum. Her work has been featured on WHUT, NPR, Washington Post, NBC4, National Geographic, Voice of America, and WAMU 88.5.

Yi holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University. She has taught documentary production and editing courses at George Mason University’s Film and Video Studies program, Fairfax Public Access, Docs In Progress, and Marymount University. She has also taught workshops at the Film and Video Association National Conference, OCA National Summit, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Convention, East Coast Asian American Student Union National Conference, DC Historical Studies Conference, Edmonton Chinatown Conference, CAAM Filmmaker Summit (session on Documentary Story Development & Process), and National AAPI Leadership Summit (session on Story Power: How to Use Film to Engage the AAPI Electorate).

First-Vote-Transcript