The Grace Lee Project

Play trailer

The Grace Lee Project

Released Mar 11, 2005

1h 8m

Documentary

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

95%

Tomatometer

21 Reviews

72%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

When filmmaker Grace Lee discovered that her name is very common among Asian-Americans, she also found out that it carries with it a stereotype of the "good" Asian; a quiet, well-behaved hard worker. To see if this stereotype holds any water, the director travels the country interviewing other women who share her name. She discovers a wide range of women, and while some fit the image of the name, others, like a goth artist and community activist, certainly do not.

Critics Consensus

The Grace Lee Project is a clever, humorous, and personal exploration of identity, ethnic stereotypes, and the oppressive cultural expectations placed on Asian-American women.

Read Critics Reviews

Ella Taylor

L.A. Weekly

Niftily shot and edited, The Grace Lee Project isn't just a witty unpacking of stereotype. It's also a welcome freshening of the old documentary saw that there's no such thing as an ordinary person.

Mar 30, 2006

Full Review

Frank Scheck

The Hollywood Reporter

Although the filmmaker provides some welcome humor in her often self-deprecating narration, she also displays a self-indulgence that gives her effort the distinct air of a vanity project.

Jan 5, 2006

Full Review

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Eager to find out more about these like-named folks, she launched a highly unscientific investigation. Luckily for us, she recorded everything in the fun documentary The Grace Lee Project.

Rated: 3/4

Dec 16, 2005

Full Review

Christopher Campbell

Cinematical

The thing that I love about her documentary is it features some individuals who are so captivating ... going so far to even break its own subjective sub-genre.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 18, 2007

Full Review

David Noh

Film Journal International

A Korean-American director takes dead-on, sometimes satirical, sometimes moving aim at stereotypes of Asian women.

Mar 1, 2007

Full Review

Kam Williams

Upstage Magazine

Whether or not you knew a Grace Lee before, you'll never be able to think of Asian females as a type again after getting to know the ensemble comprising this enlightening and enriching bio-pic.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 9, 2007

Full Review

Read all reviews

Audience Member

Funny and thoughtful exploration of the diversity of Asian American identity.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

More than a little pretentious as a concept, but I really enjoyed two of the individual stories (the ones about the Asian Black activist and the woman who helped her domestically abused friend). There didn't seem like the filmmaker had much to say other than "there's a lot of Grace Lees" so that her observations and everything seemed really scatterbrained.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Cute and fun little documentary about the common asian name Grace Lee:)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Much better than I expected. The jesus freak girl kind of spooked me, but I think she would be cool to know IRL.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I watched this film last night. It is a relatively by-the-book exploration of identity and prevailing cultural stereotypes of Asian American women (predominately in the United States). I was most struck by the overwhelming presence of christianity and Grace Kelly in the film, which does seem to reinforce the arguments of Richard Dyer and others as to the cultural hegemony of whiteness in the form of the pure white woman. In talking with the filmmaker after the screening, she seemed just as surprised by these two themes as I was, but believed that they were as much generational as anything else. I can understand this, but I think that it also points to a dominant ideological paradigm whereby white women are the epitome to which all other non-white women are implicitly directed to emulate, lest they be considered "abnormal." I eagerly anticipate the feature length documentary on Grace Lee Boggs.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Interesting, humorous, revealing.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Grace Lee

Director

Grace Lee

Writer

Amy Ferraris

Writer

Grace Lee

Producer

In-Ah Lee

Executive Producer

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

A State of Mind

89%

92%

A State of Mind

Watchlist

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

97%

84%

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

Watchlist

Small Town Gay Bar

100%

69%

Small Town Gay Bar

Watchlist

Double Dare

97%

79%

Double Dare

Watchlist

The Education of Shelby Knox

88%

70%

The Education of Shelby Knox

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

10 Asian Women Filmmakers Who Paved the Way for Other Asian Film Talent

View more photos

Synopsis

When filmmaker Grace Lee discovered that her name is very common among Asian-Americans, she also found out that it carries with it a stereotype of the "good" Asian; a quiet, well-behaved hard worker. To see if this stereotype holds any water, the director travels the country interviewing other women who share her name. She discovers a wide range of women, and while some fit the image of the name, others, like a goth artist and community activist, certainly do not.

Director: Grace Lee
Producer: Grace Lee
Screenwriter: Grace Lee, Amy Ferraris
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Production Co: Lee Lee Films
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 11, 2005, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Dec 14, 2005
Box Office (Gross USA): $6.0K
Runtime: 1h 8m