Janet Chen

As a queer immigrant woman of color, Janet Chen works to support underrepresented and marginalized communities. She is a filmmaker, organizer and educator. She has worked at UC Irvine, Outfest and Visual Communications. Janet is currently the Assistant Director of the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications in Asian American Studies where she co-teaches documentary courses with professor and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña. Janet has also led film and multimedia projects including: Building History 3.0, a Minecraft K-12 curriculum project; Collective Memories, an oral histories project about the beginnings of the Asian American movement; and Translate COVID-19, multi-language PSA videos. She is also a leadership team member for A-Doc (Asian American Documentary Network), a national network that works to increase the visibility and support of Asian Americans in the documentary field. Janet’s most recent short film, Phoenix Bakery: Sweets for the Sweet is currently screening at film festivals nationally. Her latest project is a social media/multimedia project, May 19 AAPI Solidarity, with Jeff Chang (Race Forward) and Renee Tajima-Peña (Asian Americans series). Her research interests include mental health, intergenerational trauma, transnational identities, gender and cultural dynamics.