Mira Chai- The Godmother of Men's Grooming

I’m very humbled and proud to share my portrait of Mira Chai’s incredible life of survival and resilience. As an Asian woman I was inspired to start filming powerful and inspiring women in my life who are representative of my struggle, and with whom I feel a certain affinity. I personally suffered through many moments of shame, embarrassment, racism, and discrimination for simply looking different and being of mixed Asian heritage- for essentially just being myself. This happened in a variety of countries where I lived, often my parents were not even aware because I was too afraid to tell them nor could they do anything if I had. So, I suffered in silence for decades and was made to feel lesser for being part Asian. I used to watch my Mom apply endless layers of Max Factor pale foundation to make her face look whiter and was always so sad and embarrassed that she felt the need to cover up the beautiful color of her skin in order to be accepted by society. She would literally say I must put “my face on” before going out.
When I first started researching Mira, I had no idea about the amazing life she had and all the challenges she had been through. I was primarily attracted to her art and how talented she was and how she used her creativity to survive in many places she was forced to live. We both share the Philippines in common and family who have suffered in silence with mental illness because culturally it is still not accepted. I really wanted to explore what her experiences were like as a young woman and discovered that my own were very similar.
I’m still processing how the US can continue to be so divided that racism and discrimination are not even covert anymore, especially the Asian hate that was stirred up again during the 2016 elections. The wave of violence towards innocent Asians, especially the elderly population, many of whom were killed nonsensically, made me so sad and infuriated. Asian Americans have made significant historic contributions to the US, and many are oblivious to these facts.
Since my years at Sarah Lawrence College, documentaries have always been my passion, and why I wanted to be a Director at age twelve. One of my first documentaries as a Sophomore was “Color and Differences @ SLC” where I interviewed both students and faculty of color who shared their experiences on campus revealing painful and blatant incidents of racism and discrimination which caused quite a turmoil that the Dean of Studies even asked to see it...Recently I told my then Film Professor, Abigail Child, that I feared I would be kicked out at the time for showing it at the Student Film Festival I had organized on campus. Luckily, I took my Junior year abroad to learn Russian. As a result of the Students of Color Group staging a hunger strike at the President‘s house, where we were demanding an increased presence of students of color on campus and better - equal treatment, she then stepped down after a decade of holding office.
I’ve always fought and advocated for human rights, especially women’s rights, and my work often has powerful social justice messages as I feel we still have a lot of work to do in the world, especially in the US. I believe wholeheartedly that documentaries can have a huge impact on changing people’s lives for the better and shedding some more light on other people of color’s histories across the world. My nearly 16-year-old son often asks why the history textbooks in school do not write about atrocities that were committed in certain parts of the globe.
My name in Russian means hope, and I do hope that this documentary helps to inspire other young Asian people to feel proud of who they are and to not let anyone make them feel uncomfortable for just being themselves and that they feel empowered to do anything their heart desires in life.
Nadia Voukitchevitch