To the Plate
To the Plate follows restaurateur Moonlynn Tsai and her romantic partner Yin Chang as they find a way to support local businesses and help East Asian seniors. Moonlynn and Yin started the mutual aid initiative Heart of Dinner after hearing elders were being targeted for hate crimes and struggling with food insecurity. They've prepared and delivered thousands of hot meals and care packages to senior citizens whose pantries were emptying.
Through their work, this documentary shows younger generations’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic surge in anti-Asian violence. Lunar New Year celebrations for 2021 were overshadowed by reports of elders being attacked and killed throughout the country. The pandemic exacerbated xenophobia and financial strain. To the Plate documents Chinatown’s fight for safety and economic survival. This film explores the implications the coronavirus has on Asian citizens’ economic, social, and cultural well-being.
Gopika Ajay & Annick Laurent
To the Plate, Documentary, 2020, 23 minutes
To the Plate, Documentary, 2020, 23 minutes
Gopika Ajay & Annick Laurent
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gopikaajay06.wixsite.com/mysite
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ga2528@columbia.edu
annxcklaurent@gmail.com
Gopika Ajay is a video journalist and documentary filmmaker from India. She is currently working in the film production industry in Dubai. Ajay received her PGDM in Broadcast Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism. Before joining Columbia Journalism School’s documentary cohort, she worked as a news producer for the television channel India. Recipient of Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellowship, 2021.
Annick Laurent is a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist from New York. Her interests include race and gender relations, culture, and the environment. Laurent is drawn to stories concerning identity, equity, and access. Her first film, To the Plate, is about the way xenophobia affected Asian American elders and business owners during the pandemic. Before graduating from Columbia Journalism School, Laurent earned a B.S. in Biology from Spelman College.