Independent Lens
The Grocery List Show
Host Chrissy Camba, former Top Chef contender, and guests visit international grocery stores across the U.S. and cook together, illustrating how cuisine can forge cultural connections.
Untitled Scientist Project
This film follows the life and work of a respected Chinese American scientist within the challenging geopolitical landscape of national security, academic freedom, and racial profiling.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer/Director
Jiayan Shi
Jiayan “Jenny” Shi is a documentary filmmaker who is passionate about stories that find shared humanity and compassion. Her debut documentary Finding Yingying was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award. Jenny is a Firelight Documentary Lab fellow, a New America fellow, and a Sundance | The Asian American Foundation fellow.
Executive Producer
Diane M. Quon
Academy Award-nominated Diane Quon is an independent producer, whose documentaries include: the Oscar-nominated Minding the Gap, aka Mr. Chow, Emmy Award-nominated Finding Yingying, Emmy Award-nominated Wuhan Wuhan, Oscar short-listed Bad Axe, Breaking the News, and Surf Nation. Diane is a member of AMPAS and the PGA.
- Other ITVS Films
- Breaking the News
- The Grocery List Show
- Minding the Gap
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Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.
The Film
Gang Chen was born in China and came to the U.S. in 1989. He earned a PhD from UC Berkeley and went on to head the mechanical engineering department at MIT, where his work centered on heat transfer and energy conversion. In 2021, he was arrested, accused of hiding affiliations with Chinese government institutions while securing millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. His high-profile case was part of the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, which combatted China-related economic espionage.
In an ongoing debate over national security and academic freedom, law enforcement officials claim that cutting-edge knowledge is often clandestinely transferred to China. Scientists argue that global problems mandate international collaboration, while historians cite a Cold War era when scientific knowledge was often treated as a state asset.
One year later, the government drops the case against Gang and discontinues the China Initiative in name. They deny racial bias but acknowledge the fear created in the Asian American community. Gang returns to his lab, though most of his student researchers had left, and avoids applying for government funding out of fear. He joins a group of Asian American scientists advocating for academic freedom and equality, and is later elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
The film foregrounds many unanswerable questions. Can Gang Chen continue his research with limited resources in a climate of national scrutiny and fear? Where is the boundary between national security and academic freedom? Can science transcend political borders?
