There is a moment in Edward Yang’s acclaimed film Yi Yi (2000) in which a young boy in a conversation with his father observes that he cannot see what his father sees and that his father cannot see what he sees, prompting two questions: “How can I know what you see?” and “Can we only know half of the truth?” Unable to provide adequate answers, his father instead offers his son a camera. Later in the film, the same boy presents his uncle with a picture he took of the back of his head. When asked why, the boy responds by saying, “You cannot see it yourself, so I’m helping you.” These two scenes in Yang’s film illustrate the spirit of the questions that guide the aesthetic approach I have taken in my own documentary project. My thesis is composed of two parts: a video project and a research paper, the former of which is a documentary entitled Yi. Named after its primary subject, the film explores the intersections of transnational migrancy and cultural identity through a series of interviews that are intercut with scenes of everyday life that are shot in an observational style. The research paper that follows will situate the project within a specific historical, conceptual, and aesthetic context, before delineating how the cinematic composition of my documentary engages with this framework.

The following report on ARC 696: Advanced Architectural Design Studio: Alley Flat Initiative, at the University of Texas at Austin in the Spring of 2010 taught by Prof. Louise Harpman and visiting Prof. Sarah Gamble asks how new knowledge is acquired through the in-depth study and reconstruction of documentary recordings taken from a semester of the studio. The recordings were made of the activities that transpired as a result of the educational studio design process, interactions with educators, reviewers, community partners, clients, professional architects, contractors, citizens and the unique sites that were chosen for consideration. The narrative of the studio was then reconstructed into the language of film and supervised by Anne Lewis of the Department of Radio Television and Film at the University of Texas. Through observation, I have recorded the process by which the Alley Flat Initiative attempts to create a unique educational experience for students by exposing them to real life actors in the creation of housing that is affordable, green and mitigates the forces of gentrification. In the recording process, I documented the initial design question posed to the studio, the formation of design partnerships between students, the collaborative engagement of students and clients, faculty and community reviews, stumbling blocks in the process, the negotiations between the concepts of affordability and sustainable design, interactions between the students and stakeholders, and student reflections on their experiences as participants in the Alley Flat Initiative studio. The focus of film is to create a body of research that is easily transmitted on the student’s ability to learn design through exposure to real clients, a real site and a chance that their design might be built. Further, the research seeks to make recommendations that can be implemented into the organizational language of future Alley Flat Studios in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. This report will: (1) lay the groundwork for the methodology that was incorporated into the recording; (2) review existing literature on the subject of filmmaking as a means to conduct research; and (3) reveal the findings of the research and implications for future service learning projects. Therefore, the report will serve to contextualize elements of the research that were not able to be addressed by the film. / text

The film is about a newly arrived Japanese student's initial period of adjustment at the University of North Texas. This observational documentary film follows the student and witnesses the student's first reactions to various social environments. The purpose of this creative thesis project was to depict the difficulties that international students encounter at the beginning of their stay in America. The initial goal of the video was to provide useful visual research material to people who are interested in the acculturation of foreign students. Because of its realistic character, the video can give its audiences a more immediate and vivid picture of foreign students than existing written literature. By giving an authentic portrait of the students' hardship and adjustments, the ultimate goal of this video was to increase the American people's appreciation of the difficulties encountered by foreign students who come to this country equipped with limited social assistance and resources. An accompanying production report describes the research process, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages.