We Are All One or 當我們站起來 is a 10-minute sci-fi fantasy short film by Hong Kong born Canadian Danny Ho that explores the touchy subject of how East Asians (especially East Asian men) are treated and portrayed in Western mass media and how it affects the perception of East Asians in Western society. It features a Chinese student living in North America who wonders how things could be different if his people were the dominant race on Earth. When he’s warped into an alternate universe where the Chinese are indeed the dominant race, he discovers that things are not what he expected. Danny says ” For as long as the medium of film has existed, from “yellowface” Charlie Chan films to Breakfast At Tiffany’s to Sixteen Candles and most recently The Hangover films, Asians in North America (especially men) have been heavily stereotyped, desexualised and ridiculed.

Growing up in North America, I have witnessed a lot of Hollywood films depicting Asians in a stereotyped / negative light. They are made fun of, depicted as nerdy and weak, never “get the girl” in a film, or take a backseat to a Caucasian character for no good reason other than racism (Bruce Lee in Green Hornet). I made this film to show people that there is a genuine inequality in the mass media and we should never look at things without asking questions.

However, instead of attacking the sensitive subject of racial discrimination in the mass media head-on, I decided to create a film based on a script I wrote for my thesis film in film school that asks viewers to rethink what films are actually trying to imply when they are made.

I hope to be able to open the minds of viewers about how Hollywood films brainwash the masses with storylines and characters that cater to their ideologies and not necessarily present what is true (if you tell a lie a thousand times, it becomes the truth).

Ultimately, the theme of this film is how power, not race, dictates human behaviour, as whoever controls the mass media will ultimately be able to subconsciously influence our perception of one another. ”

Find out more about Danny Ho dtmuniversal.com