Research Guides: AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) Resources: Documentary Films

Documentary Streaming Videos from Films On Demand

Below are a few streaming videos from the library database, Films On Demand. For remote access, you will be prompted to log in - Use your portal username and password.

Asian Americans
This five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural innovation. It is a timely, clear-eyed look at the vital role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. Their stories are a celebration of the grit and resilience of a people that reflects the experience of all Americans.
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience
What does it mean to become American? What is lost and what is gained in the process? In interviews with historians, descendants, and recent immigrants, this set of powerful Bill Moyers documentaries explores these questions through the dramatic experience of the Chinese in America. Includes Gold Mountain Dreams, Between Two Worlds, and No Turning Back.
Between Two Worlds
In the early 1880s, abetted by the Chinese Exclusion Act, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment swept across America. This program examines the exclusion years through the stories of Chinese Americans and their families who were kept apart by both ancient custom and U.S. law. These immigrants were trapped between countries, at home neither in the U.S. nor in China. The law of the land, which separated these families, also provided relief as Chinese Americans turned to the courts for justice.
Chinese in America
Journalist Lisa Ling explores the massive and economically diverse movement of immigration from China to the United States – and traces her own family roots, to find out what it means to be Chinese in America.
Korean Americans
This program examines a major piece of the new American mosaic-a group that is seeking to retain its traditional cultural values while adjusting to life in the U.S. Korean Americans have come into frequent and violent conflict with inner-city African Americans, and have sought, through their own ethnic civic organizations, to overcome the rejection of the community around them.
The New Generation: Vietnamese-Americans Today
Through candid interviews with first- and second-generation Vietnamese-Americans, this program documents the process of assimilation into American culture of refugees from the former Republic of Vietnam.
Silent Sacrifice: Stories of Japanese-American Incarceration
In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that cleared the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans in U.S. confinement camps. Men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were evicted from the West Coast of the United States and held in sites across the country.
The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television
The Slanted Screen examines the portrayal Asian men in film and television, and how new filmmakers are now re-defining age-old stereotypes.

Asian and American: The long, ugly history of racism and violence against the AAPI community

This video outlines a long history of racism and violence against the AAPI community in America. It begins with the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act and the Rock Springs Massacre, highlighting early instances of racial animosity and legal exclusion. The narrative continues through the colonization of the Philippines, wartime internment of Japanese Americans, and post-war incidents targeting Vietnamese shrimpers. The transcript also details the murder of Vincent Chin, the rise in hate crimes after 9/11 targeting South Asians, and the ongoing nature of discrimination fueled by fear and economic anxieties.

Plague at the Golden Gate

Discover how the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. A fascinating medical mystery and timely examination of the relationship between the medical community, city powerbrokers and the Chinese American community, Plague at the Golden Gate tells the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from the deadly plague.

PBS Asian American Series

This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. There are 5 films in this series including Breaking Ground (embedded below):

In an era of U.S. expansion, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Eventually barred by anti-Asian laws, they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants.”

AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) Resources

Streaming from Films On Demand

Streaming from Kanopy

Short Film Clips

Documentary Streaming Videos from Films On Demand

Asian and American: The long, ugly history of racism and violence against the AAPI community

Plague at the Golden Gate

PBS Asian American Series