The notable rise in onscreen and online diversity in the recent two decades is often conceived as a document of social justice, or improved access to actual rights and resources for historically marginalized groups. Assuming a feminist diasporic lens, this talk examines how minoritarian media practices critically revisit the promise of representational plenitude. Informed by Asian diasporic and migrant media engagements, from video art, to activist film festival organizing, to grassroots social media use, I highlight the ways that demands for media representation today are also vitally imbricated with historical expectations for feminized and racialized servitude. Conversely, the talk suggests methods and ways of documenting the ongoing world-making practices of minoritized communities – of survival, creativity, and resistance – that cannot be easily subsumed by the demand for ready service.
Feng-Mei Heberer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, and the author of Asians on Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism (University of Minnesota Press, 2023). Her research and teaching focus on contemporary film and media, with special interest in issues of gendered labor, transnational migration, and Asian diaspora. In addition, she researches and works in film curation and community arts and culture organizing.