Robert Y. Chang

Robert Y. Chang (NYU Anthropology & Culture and Media, PhD '14) is an Emmy-nominated producer and is currently the Coordinating Producer of America ReFramed. As part of the Programming & Production team at American Documentary, Robert contributes to the curation of its award-winning documentary series. Robert is a member of the Producers Guild of America and has served as a juror, screener, programmer, panelist, and reviewer for a range of film festivals and arts funders. He has also judged for the IDA Awards, the Tellys, RTDNA Murrow Awards, and the News & Documentary Emmys. As an independent filmmaker, Robert's work has screened worldwide at festivals and is distributed by Documentary Educational Resources (DER). Robert received a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at NYU with his dissertation titled "Mediating the Dharma, Attuning the Sensorium: Technologies of Embodiment and Personhood Among Nonliberal Buddhists in North America." His doctoral research centered on media in order to highlight how cosmopolitan, immigrant, and religious identities are crafted in secular multicultural societies. By focusing on the religious media that Buddhist produce and use to attune their embodied sensoria, Robert also examined how this dispersed religious community appropriates a variety of media technologies as tools for generating modern religious subjects with nonliberal orientations. Most broadly, his research bridged frameworks of media production and embodied sensory practice; transnational formations of religious identity; religiosity and its mediations of social life. 

Interviewer Melissa Lefkowitz is a filmmaker, doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at NYU, and graduate of the Program in Culture & Media.

Melissa Lefkowitz: What brought you to the Culture and Media Program? 

Robert Chang: I’ve always been much more a “pursue your curiosity” rather than a “pursue your passion” type of person. As an undergraduate, I attended UC Santa Cruz. I was taking social psychology courses with Craig Haney and Stephen Wright, studying Chinese historiography with Gail Hershatter and Emily Honig, and exploring art history & semiotics with Raoul Birnbaum and Jennifer Gonzalez. By the end of my sophomore year, I ended up creating my own individual major before heading off to China for my junior year abroad.

Which, quite frankly, was a thirteen-month period where much of what I had studied up to that point didn’t really help me understand what I was encountering. This would have been in the late nineties. My experiences that year included: stumbling into frenzied opening day crowds at one of the very first Wal-marts to open in the country; attending “underground” performances by Cui Jian with friends who were much more in-the-know; discovering commemorative cigars celebrating Bill Clinton’s visit to Qingdao (after the Lewinsky testimonies); observing palpable anti-American anger and active protests in Beijing after a US airstrike demolished the Chinese embassy in Belgrade; dancing the night away at the “Half-in-Half” bar when a fellow student became a resident DJ–her boss was a then unknown transsexual ex-colonel of the People’s Liberation Army (IYKYK).  

When I got back to Santa Cruz, I was really trying to make sense of my year abroad and received the very good advice to enroll in Lisa Rofel’s “Ethnographies of China” & Jacqueline Brown’s course on transnationalisms. It was in these anthropology courses where much of what I had experienced abroad began to make sense and fit together. It was then that I realized that I had been trying to create an anthropology major not knowing there was already an entire department of amazing anthropologists on campus! Anyhow, I had taken a lot of photos while I was abroad and, in light of what I was studying, I revisited these images as visual encounters with China. I was able to stage a gallery exhibition with these photos to challenge stereotypical representations of China. I took many of these images because they challenged my own expectations of what I would encounter in China. My finding of anthropology was made concrete through the use of visual media in this way. 

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t a straight line from there to NYU’s Culture and Media Program. After graduation, I was an intern at the Asian Cultural History Program as part of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian, I picked up tutoring gigs to pay the bills, and I also worked in a Baltimore cheese cave before ending up in development and fundraising at a literacy education non-profit. During that time, I always had the thought that perhaps I should pursue my curiosity and return to school to learn a little bit more about anthropology in order to better understand the meanings, conflicts, and transformations that emerge from making media. 

So, I started scouting and checking out departments–and was very selective about the programs I applied to, because I was quite happy with my job. But when NYU called up with an offer, I was like, “Yes!” because its Culture and Media Program was a unique program offering the wonderful opportunity to learn about the history of ethnographic media while also providing the training to make documentary films.

“I actually quite like the producer’s role, in the sense that a producer is rarely front and center grabbing the attention, but rather able to put forward and advance projects deserving of attention.”

—Robert Y. Chang

ML: Following the program, what drove you to the next phase of your career and how did you break into the field? 

RC: As I was finishing up my dissertation and thinking about the next stage of my career, I did a lot of soul searching. Many different life events hit right around the time I was finishing my dissertation. Life happens, right?... Well, enough things happened in ways that made me take stock and reassess. I was actually very happy to be in the classroom. Where I had been teaching, I had the opportunity to design my own syllabi for courses on the anthropology the senses as well as for classes on religion & media. Basically, I was teaching in my field and quite enjoyed it.

But I had other constraints to consider, including geography–so it wasn’t just the pursuit of curiosity that factored in as I weighed the possibilities of which career I could pursue with all of my training. That’s when I really benefited from being able to keep one foot in the door of the film industry as I worked on my doctorate. After I made my Culture and Media film (Nothing to Lose), I line produced other narrative projects that had gone on the festival circuit. My very first pitch session that I attended as a student, my fellow “co-pitchee” was [Culture & Media graduate] Rachel Lears. We pitched at Silverdocs to a panel that included Yance Ford and Cynthia Lopez, who at the time were both associated with American Documentary, where I am now currently the Coordinating Producer of America ReFramed. As it turns out, in 2020 I went back as a panelist at the DX festival that, like Silverdocs, was under the directorship of [Culture & Media graduate] Sky Sitney. So, it was a very satisfying full circle over a decade later. 

Anyhow, I had always tried to keep a foot in that world, and it was actually through a random social media post by somebody in the industry about an opening at American Documentary that led me to take a closer look. I realized that many of the documentary films that I taught with in my own classroom were also films that American Documentary had broadcast to public television viewers through their curated series: POV [https://www.amdoc.org/pov/] and America ReFramed. I was like, wow, there's actually an organization that is committed to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers by providing their work access to public media viewers. The series that American Documentary produces showcases the work of filmmakers from both around the country and around the world on American airwaves. So, I was thrilled to join the team and help shape the curation and production of America ReFramed.

You’ll see a recurring theme of my assessing opportunities and going, “Yes, that's what I want.” At each point that I made the decision, it was always informed by my own curiosity about what the new opportunity might bring and how I might be able to make an impact with the training that I had under my belt. Also, for me to have gotten to where I am – I know that many people have opened doors for me, shared opportunities for me, and pointed me in directions of places where I might want to look. I wouldn't be here without those who were very gracious and generous to me with their time, experience, and networks. That’s something that I try to pay forward, as well. Increasingly, I also wonder how I might shape the circumstances that I’m in so that it can become more hospitable for those who come after me.

ML: Those are the hardest questions to ask oneself.

RC: Yeah. They are the hardest questions because it's so much easier not to have to ask them. But I also think that by not asking them there runs a risk reproducing processes and practices that we may not want to be a part of–or that I definitely wouldn’t want to see proliferate. The questions that we’re taught to ask as anthropologists are relevant to a range of industries, like “What are the relationships of power? How does consent operate? What’s going on?” This stance is fundamental to how anthropologists do their work, and I think I bring that with me as I move into the responsibilities that I have in shaping a national series. In terms of program curation, outreach with filmmakers, selection of our community engagement partners, either within public media or with artist services programs, we think very carefully about which projects we move forward and how we might be able to support our filmmakers even if perhaps our series may not be the best fit for their current work. It’s always painful to say no to a project that you love. The real work, the much less seen work, by those people in gatekeeping roles is how might you open other pathways forward for projects and filmmakers who might find support and opportunities elsewhere. That’s something that I had no idea really existed back when I was making my first pitch at Silverdocs. Now, being on the other side receiving project pitches, I have a very different perspective on the process and what the industry could be like for those starting out.   

ML: Could you describe the process of establishing yourself in this field, including the meaningful moments and challenges? 

RC: I feel like I continue to work toward establishing myself in the field. When you are first introduced to a field–it always seems very big. Regardless of how big it actually is, it nonetheless is always comprised of people. It’s going to sound very corny, but I’m discovering the importance of trying to be authentically you as you interact with each person that you encounter in the field. That's the way that I’ve tried to establish myself. I don't think there's a surefire way to establish yourself in any field. Some people are very good at showcasing their many accomplishments; others take a back seat and are more backstage to the kinds of work that they do. I actually quite like the producer’s role, in the sense that a producer is rarely front and center grabbing the attention, but rather able to put forward and advance projects deserving of attention.

Some of the meaningful moments that I’ve had have really been when I've had a chance to have one-on-one conversations with filmmakers at film festivals or with programmers about projects that they’re working on. It’s really these conversations that I feel have helped me find grounding and continue to center me within what I do. It’s these relationships of discovery that keep me going even when I wake up and am faced with enough work that would take days, weeks, months, even years to accomplish.

Presently the space that I’m operating within, that of public media, a lot can still be done for those who are on the outside and for those who have not had the opportunity and support of a national broadcast. The work that I do to reallocate and direct resources and to support filmmakers continues to be very meaningful for me.

“The question for me is, beyond performing a version of yourself, what is it that you can do that can leave a positive impact on those with whom you interact?”

—Robert Y. Chang

ML: Are there specific elements of the Culture and Media program that you have applied to your career? 

RC: One of the things that I really appreciate about the Culture and Media program is that it cultivates a particular ethos and sensibility towards both culture and media. It overlaps those two domains in very useful ways. The two are, in many ways, one and the same, but they refract, they process, they get contested in different ways. There are different kinds of constraints around media, just as there are different constraints around culture. The sensibility that I took from my Culture and Media training was to recognize always the inherent politics of all media and all culture…That’s something that informs my approach to curation and programming. Every film that I watch and assess, I assess through a Culture and Media lens, so to speak, as much as I assess it through a programming lens for America ReFramed. 

ML: What motivates you? 

RC: One of the reasons that I talked about one-on-one and having a more authentic connection with people is because, so often these days, the language of social media has saturated our understanding of both the world and our relationships. The phrasing of being “on brand” continues to ring oddly to my ears. I recognize that there are platforms where you can perform various versions of self. The question for me is, beyond performing a version of yourself, what is it that you can do that can leave a positive impact on those with whom you interact? 

ML: What advice would you give Culture and Media students hoping to pursue a career outside of academia? 

RC: The program is in New York City. It's still the heart of so many different industries and there are so many opportunities that being at NYU and the Culture and Media program affords you. You can certainly make use of the skills you develop here in in domains outside of academia, whether that's in production or in curation. I shared my story about how I found my job… It was truly through the power of social media and the connections that I was able to make. By going to film screenings and Q&As and getting introduced to people, I learned about the job opening for the position I currently hold. 

ML: What can we look forward to in the future? 

RC: A lot of exciting things, sign up for our newsletter for updates! My series is about to launch its tenth season with the premier of Fannie Lou Hamer’s America: An America ReFramed Special. It’s a very special film we are co-producing and also partnering with Black Public Media. It’ll be broadcast nationally on both PBS and WORLD Channel. Its broadcast will also inaugurate America ReFramed’s shift to weekly Thursday night broadcasts. America ReFramed is a curated documentary series committed to presenting stories that illuminate complex social issues and pose an array of experiences through which viewers can contemplate our past, understand our present, and challenge the reimagining of America’s future. For nearly a decade, America ReFramed has been offering independent documentary films for the public to either watch on their televisions or stream via the PBS Video App. We have a lot of exciting films that are already on tap and have been publicly announced for season ten.  

I haven't talked about the collaborative work and conversations that have come out through my participation in the DOC NYC New Leaders in Documentary cohort last year. That was a real eye-opening opportunity, because they managed to curate a group that reflected so many different sectors of the documentary field, such as people who are based out of major studios as well as those in the nonprofit media production and distribution. There were also specialists on the talent acquisition side. It was a real range of participants and some of the conversations that we had there are contributing to exciting projects and initiatives that will be announced soon.