LISA LING
JOURNALIST AND HOST FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TELEVISION AND THE VIEW, SEGMENT REPORTER FOR COLORVISION

Q: I know you've worked in public television prior to COLORVISION. What have some of your experiences been? What has inspired you to develop these documentaries and films?

A: I co-produced eight documentaries for KCET in Los Angeles. My first one was a documentary about my 14-year-old cousin who passed away of liver cancer, called Ali. We produced a piece on Afghanistan, the Chinese economy, Algeria, the drug war in Columbia, Tibet, the LA County Jail (which is the world's largest jail) and a piece on the new capitalism in Russia.

As a young journalist, I was so excited to visit a lot of the places that I visited and explore different cultures and different worlds. I was a 21-year-old kid going to Afghanistan, I was covering the war there before Afghanistan was even in the national lexicon, and you know, getting anti-tank missiles aimed at me. I look at that as such an enriching experience. I hope that I was able to expose young Americans to the reality of places like Afghanistan.

Q: What is it that drew you to the COLORVISION project?

A: I loved the idea of a show that intends to give a voice to ethnic filmmakers who have compelling non-mainstream stories to tell.

Q: How do you think the careers of the minority filmmakers, whose films will be showcased in COLORVISION, will be influenced by this kind of project? What do you think is the biggest challenge to an independent filmmaker?

A: I really hope that COLORVISION will help generate attention to the work of people whose voices may be unheard otherwise. The biggest challenge is getting the right people to watch one's work. Hopefully these people will be watching COLORVISION.

Q: Tell me about the places you explored for COLORVISION.

A: I worked on a piece in Hawaii about the conflict between development and cultural preservation. It's a story about ancient burial grounds that are being converted to a golf course. We take the time to delve deep and give equal voice to both sides of the issue.

Q: What do you feel your role is in the Asian-American community?

A: One of the reasons why I like the job that I do on The View so much, is that I am employing my own voice, not memorizing someone else's, not reading someone's lines. That's something I've always wanted to do. It's difficult because there are so few Asians in the business and somehow one is expected to represent an entire ethnic group, which, frankly, is impossible to do. There's a lot of criticism that goes on within the Asian-American community. I find this to be incredibly destructive and disappointing. I would say that the overwhelming majority of emails and letters and comments I get are extremely positive, but those that are negative are pretty nasty. I sometimes feel like I can't win. On the one hand, people say you are representing the Asian community, you need to bring Asian issues to the table more frequently. But then other members of the audience will say you wear your "Asianness" on your sleeve and it's totally inappropriate. It's a tough line to tow.