Possibilities and Predicaments: Rethinking Asian American Filmmaking in the Age of AI
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 | 2:00PM-3:20PM | THH 201 | RSVP
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Director Yeon Jin Lee with Faculty Moderator Prof. Raymond Tsang (EASC 150: East Asian Societies) 

In an age shaped by both human anxieties (war, economic sanctions, humanitarian crises) and posthuman anxieties (prosthetic surgery, robotic learning, cloning), pressing questions emerge: Can machines truly think or work on our behalf? Does AI possess genuine creativity, or does it merely simulate it? And how is AI reshaping filmmaking, particularly for Asian American filmmakers? At stake is not only the question of authorship but also representation—whether Asians are relegated to stereotypical roles or reimagined as futuristic, emotionless robots. 

This lecture examines these tensions as a form of double consciousness, where creativity and identity are continuously negotiated against the backdrop of technological transformation in a transnational context. We are honored to host Yeon-jin Lee, a Korean American graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, whose migration from Korea to Indonesia and eventually to the United States, and whose professional journey from Silicon Valley and NASA to Hollywood, provides a powerful lens for understanding the possibilities and predicaments of Asian American filmmaking in the age of AI. Yeon-jin will present her short films and share the struggles and insights that have shaped her filmmaking career.