Bao Nguyen

Filmmaker Bao Nguyen played a crucial role in our AAPI Storytellers Festival — his powerful short film #StopAsianHate played before each film screening and his poignant Bruce Lee documentary 'Be Water' was also featured. Nguyen’s depiction of Lee’s legacy aims to challenge harmful Western notions of Asian men, who are too often falsely stereotyped in the media as desexualized or weak.

“To my knowledge, this is the only feature documentary about Bruce Lee directed by an Asian American, which is surprising and not surprising at the same time,” said Nguyen during 'Be Water's'  post-screening discussion. “So it was important to me to examine him through that Asian-American perspective.”

Keep up with Nguyen’s incredible work through his Instagram .

Maia Shibutani

Two-time Olympic medalist Maia Shibutani joined us for two post-screening discussions: 'Be Water' and 'The Music of Strangers'. The acclaimed ice dancer is also a children’s book author. Along with her brother, Alex, the pair wrote 'Kudo Kids', a new middle grade series about two Japanese American siblings who solve mysteries.

“We didn’t have a series like our series when we were kids,” she said during the 'Be Water' post-screening discussion. “We didn’t have a book where we saw two kids that were Asian American. They weren’t the heroes of their own story, so to be able to create that for the next generation is really special and important.”

Keep up with Shibutani’s activism, athleticism, and authorship through her Instagram

Screenshot of 'Be Water' post-screening discussion with Maia Shibutani, Bao Nguyen, Ronny Chieng and Steve Jang (left to right, top to bottom)