The new webseries We Gon’ Be Alright exploring issues of racial segregation, representation in Hollywood, Harvard admissions, and gentrification premiered on May 14 online. The four episodes of the digital series, directed by Bao Nguyen (CAAM funded Employed Identity webseries on PBS, Live From New York!) is now available on Indie Lens Storycast’s YouTube channel,Facebook Watchand BeAlright.net (or watch them all below).
The series is inspired by Jeff Chang’s essays in his acclaimed book We Gon’ Be Alright, asking: why and how did we become so divided and what can we do now to be alright?
The series picks up on events and developments that have transpired in the U.S. since the book was published in 2016. Each episode examines a different aspect of the social divide over race in the US — Silicon Valley resegregation, Hollywood images, Harvard admissions, privilege and marginalization — and how a nation of unprecedented diversity is becoming more divided and inequitable.
“We’ve reached this point of racial division in U.S. politics slowly — it’s been over five decades since the Civil Rights Act. Yet the last few years have quickly accelerated resegregation. So much of what we do in our daily lives actually obscures the reality of our separateness and we hope that the series helps us see what is happening and spark the difficult conversations about how we can move forward together,” Chang notes.
We Gon’ Be Alright is produced by showrunner Kimmie Kim (Live From New York!, Songwriter) and features interviews with Dianne Doan, Linda Sarsour, Rafael Casal, Adam Rodriguez, Reggie Hudlin, and Kieu Chinh.
We Gon’ Be Alright is a co-production of ITVS and Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is a supporting partner of the series. The series screened at CAAMFest37 to a sold out house on May 12, 2019.
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