05/13/2026
Why our made a short film about Asian American History.
These days, we’re able to re-approach and re-evaluate American history with a more critical lens as we recognize how white washed it’s been. But that doesn’t make it any less painful to come to these realizations. Animation as a medium can be used to make these more difficult conversations easier to approach.
This is where Cami wanted to use her skills as an art director to be part of the conversation, which is why she made her short film, Paper Daughter. A gothic Chinese American fairy tale told in stop motion animation about a young Chinese woman grappling with the guilt of using the identity of a deceased girl to immigrate to the United States via Angel Island in 1926. Cami wanted to create something that shows how deeply engrained Asian Americans are in American history as well as highlight the treatment of immigrants (it’s unfortunately not a great track record).
She made this film because she wanted to show that as much as American history has been built on oppression, it’s also built on love, support, sacrifice, mutual support and solidarity. And that Asians have been part of that conversation since the beginning.
