Richard Chen
2021 Undergraduate Research Fund Awardee
Undergraduate Film & TV Class of 2022
Richard is a filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada with a passion in documentary filmmaking and photojournalism. The goal in the next few years for him is to capture the atmosphere around America, and turn it into a slice of life piece that can be looked back on for years to come.
PROJECT
Never Forget
This is my documentary on what the legacy of September the 11th has on the United States and the world. I was born in 1999, my generation was well aware of what happened even though we remember very little of the day. However, we grew up surrounded by the images of war in Afghanistan and Iraq and endless discussions on television about National Security. I’m part of the last generation of young people who were born before 9/11, and my little sister who was born in 2011, has very little idea of what happened ten years before she was born.
I’m trying to capture 20 years after the fact that this history-changing moment was something that was experienced by normal people, and each has their own story to tell. And whether it was from across the river, five blocks away, or from somewhere across the world, it’s something that started two wars and left its dent in the course of history. We’ve had four American administrations since then, and each president has had their own policies; however, the troops are still in Afghanistan, and kids born after September 11th, 2001 have now joined the army and are fighting a war that started before they were even born.
My goal with this film is to capture something that can be shown to generations in the future of what happened that day, what happened after that day. What happened wasn’t just the death of three thousand innocent people, but a movement towards nationalism, two wars, and a rising debt level. We owe an explanation to the next generation of what happened, and how they can look at this event in an objective light.
