Tea & Justice: Defying Stereotypes, Changing Law Enforcement

MY OVER-RIDING MOTIVATION IN MAKING "TEA & JUSTICE" IS THIS: I LOVE A GOOD STORY. Agnes, Trish & Christine had one good story after another! Too many to fit into the film! Remember the ancient Arabian Tales, "A Thousand & One Nights" wherein the king fell in love with Scheherezade because she had many wonderful stories to tell. I fell in love with the idea of making these women's stories into a documentary. Related to this is my motivation to be a good storyteller: to do justice to the stories, to highlight them artistically and highlight any life-lessons they hold.

I AM ALSO PASSIONATE ABOUT TWO SUBJECTS: U.S. media's under-representation and misrepresentation of Asian American women; and police reform. I'm also attracted to the unconventional! And that's how I found myself combining these 3 things into one film. As incongruous as this combination may sound it's been fun, fascinating and relevant connecting the dots. I think it also makes TEA & JUSTICE richer, creative and entertaining.

I chose the subject of Asian American women because of our image problem. Asian American women are still mis-represented and under-represented in the nation's media; stereotyped as weak, passive and exotic, like mail-order brides, nannies and victims of the global trade in prostitution. As for our more professional images: TV news-anchors and nurses, for instance, these are still stereotypes, albeit positive ones.

I pondered (over many a cup of tea!) the images of strong Asian women, most of whom are hardly known, especially in the Western world: Guan-yin, goddess of compassion, healer and protector who traveled from ancient India throughout many Asian motherlands; the Trung Sisters from Vietnam in 40 A.D. led a people's army of 80,000 and, like Joan of Arc, rid their country of foreign military occupants. Asian women cops aren't so strange after all!

It took me 10 long years to finish TEA & JUSTICE. Fortunately, the stories of Detectives Chan and Leung and Officer Trish Ormsby always kept me inspired – like the Arabian king in the tale of "Scheherezade and the 1,001 Nights". My editor, Sandrine Isambert told me too, that she never grew tired of listening to the women's stories even though she edited shots and segments over and over and over again. And it was because she found the stories so engaging, insightful and beautiful.

Margie Moore, the former N.Y.P.D. undercover cop who is now director of the National Center for Women & Policing, also motivated me with her stories and her passionate advocacy for more women on the police force in order to reform the profession, especially in regards to police abuse. This encouraged me to persevere until the film was completed. As a long-time civil rights activist (my own arrest at a political protest is featured in the film) I know that police reform is critical, but also complicated, difficult and sometimes intimidating. It's especially controversial to those who say: "We don't want women and minorities to become cops, to become repressive tools of the state." But I ask: should we abandon this profession to straight white men only?

Although police reform and race-gender stereotypes are serious subjects, I also utilize cartoons and motion graphics as a narration device, for style and for fun.

In my mission to find TEA & JUSTICE's audiences, I'm inspired by Eve Ensler's VAGINA MONOLOGUES. Ensler's entertaining, enlightening and courageous stageplay and documentary-spinoff has attracted audiences who come away so profoundly affected that they have created an international campaign for protecting women from sexual violence. I hope my own much more modest documentary will entertain, alert and inspire action too, on issues concerning women, not just as victims and survivors, but as protectors and warriors, too.

I want what all documentary filmmakers want for their films: a good distribution deal for theatrical screenings, TV broadcasts, sales or rental to schools and other institutions like libraries. But I want more: community events where "Tea & Justice" is not just shown but followed by a lively panel-audience discussion. I envision a panel with representatives from the local police department and/or from a local women's rights organization and/or from an anti-police abuse group; as well as a criminology or urban studies professor/expert and last but not least, a film critic. Civic discourse on all the social justice issues in "T&J" including the aesthetics of documentary film can hopefully lead to concrete action and progress for women and the law enforcement profession.

And I want a little bit more – so I am fundraising to make least 500 copies or more of "Tea & Justice" to send for free to women's organizations around the world who cannot afford a copy of their own.

And one last thing here, I'm selling autographed copies of the beautiful & powerful "Tea & Justice" poster as a benefit for various women's and children's shelters. The film's stars – Agnes, Christine, Trish plus myself, signed posters and raised over $500 at the film's NYC premiere to benefit the New York Asian Women's Center's shelters for women and children escaping domestic violence. At the January 2008 Beloit International Film Festival the autographed poster sales will benefit the YWCA Care House-Rocklin County, Wisconsin, a shelter for abused children. Wherever "Tea & Justice" goes, we will continue this benefit sale.