Film Screening: “Silent War: Asian American Reckonings with Mental Health” (Changfu Chang, 2025)

^{Changfu Chang, 2025, 80 minutes, USA, in English with English subtitles}

Join APSI and the Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program for a special screening of a powerful new documentary profiling multiple members of the Asian American community who stepped up to share their own battles with mental illness and the profound impact these struggles have had on our society. Silent War reveals the human cost of staying silent—and the power of breaking that silence. At once personal and political, the film charts a collective journey from shame to resilience, offering hope for a more inclusive and compassionate mental health future.

Following the screening, an expert panel will discuss the local need for culturally-informed mental health care as well as their experiences supporting the Asian American and Asian diaspora communities in North Carolina.

About the film:

Silent War: Asian American Reckonings with Mental Health is an unflinching exploration of the cultural, emotional, and systemic barriers that have kept generations of Asian Americans from speaking openly about mental illness. Told through the deeply personal stories of individuals and families—including a young Chinese American woman who survived several suicide attempts, a mother reckoning with her daughter’s bipolar disorder, an established Korean newscaster being accused of being “too Asian,” and a Sikh family haunted by a father’s unresolved pain—the film exposes the quiet suffering beneath the model minority myth. Also spotlighted are individuals from a wide range of backgrounds whose lived experiences help shed light on important topics of communication and language barriers, model minority myth, belonging and loyalty, as well as unique mental health challenges Asian Americans face. 

Blending vérité footage, interviews, and expert commentary, Silent War delves into the impact of migration, intergenerational trauma, and cultural expectations on mental well-being. The film also highlights community-led efforts to destigmatize mental health and push for culturally responsive care. More than a portrait of pain, Silent War is a call to action—and a tribute to those fighting for visibility, healing, and change in the face of silence. 

Watch the trailer:

Meet the panelists:

Eileen Chow

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Eileen Cheng-yin Chow is Associate Professor of the Practice in Chinese and Japanese Cultural Studies at Duke University, and one of the founding directors of Story Lab at Duke. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for Duke's Asian Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), as well as its interim director (Fall 2025). She is also a founding/core faculty member of Duke Asian American and Diaspora Studies. Elsewhere, Eileen is Director of the Cheng Shewo Institute of Chinese Journalism at Shih Hsin University in Taipei, Taiwan, and she co-directs the Biographical Literature Press and its longstanding Chinese-language history journal, Biographical Literature. Eileen serves on the executive board of the LA Review of Books, and as co-editor of the Duke University Press book series, Sinotheory. 

Among Eileen’s ongoing collaborative projects this year include co-editing the Routledge Introduction to Modern and Contemporary East Asian Literature; serving as dramaturg for Jingqiu Guan's multimedia dance project on rail travel and the Asian diaspora; and also, with Mae Ngai (Columbia), editing the unpublished writings of pioneer Asian American author Louis Chu. Eileen received her A.B. in Literature from Harvard (with academic sojourns at the Sorbonne, National Taiwan University, and the University of Perugia), and her Ph.D in Comparative Literature from Stanford. 

Yan Li

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As the Asociate Dean of Graduate Student Affairs, Dr. Yan Li collaborates with graduate departments, student organizations, and other administrative units to provide services that enhance the academic, social, personal, and cultural needs of graduate students. She spent more than a decade with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Duke, first as a staff psychologist and later as assistant director of campus community engagement. During that time, she collaborated with The Graduate School on various efforts to support graduate students’ wellbeing. She also served as the CAPS representative on the team that established the Duke University Center of Exemplary Mentoring, a Graduate School-led effort to recruit and support Ph.D. students from underrepresented minorities in the physical sciences and engineering. Li holds a doctor of psychology from the University of Northern Colorado and an M.A. in counseling from Truman State University in Missouri.

Lily Chen

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Lily is the founding Executive Director of UCA WAVES, a community organizer, a nursing educator, and a researcher. She has led national community grassroots efforts for mental health education in AANHPI communities since 2016. Lily directs multiple projects funded by SAMHSA, the state of North Carolina, HHS DMHDDSUS, Blue Cross NC foundation, Julian Grace Foundation, and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. She has focused on developing and testing Culturally Adaptive Mental Health First Aid Training, evidence-informed parent education and peer support, and youth peer support in AANHPI communities for suicide prevention. Lily is the producer of the documentary film Silent War: Asian American Reckoning with Mental Health.

She recently spoke at the White House AANHPI Mental Health Convening in 2024,  has published multiple Op-Eds in major news outlets, and is serving on multiple boards and committees locally and nationally. Lily is the recipient of the 2025 Carolina Public Service Award by UNC Chapel Hill, a faculty member at NC Central University, an RWJF Clinical Scholar, and obtained her PhD from UNC Chapel Hill.

Ling Jin

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Ling Jin is the NC Director of Program for UCA WAVES and a clinical mental health counseling student at UNC-Chapel Hill. She holds an M.A. from Duke University and has an extensive professional background in higher education and nonprofit administration prior to her entering the mental health field. 

Ling is also a Mental Health First Aider, an intercultural trainer, and a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). 

Originally from Shanghai, China, Ling lived and worked in Hong Kong before moving to the U.S.

Pooja Mehta

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Pooja Mehta is the founder of Tarang and currently serves as the AAPI Community Outreach Lead for the North Carolina State Division of Mental Health Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Services. As a professional with direct lived experience and a suicide loss survivor, she has been highlighting the role public health and personal perspective plays in mental healthcare in communities and policies for the last 10 years, while leading conversations that change the way we think and talk about mental health as a society.

A child of Indian immigrants raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Pooja’s values of community, compassion, and challenging norms carry through everything she does. Pooja holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia, and is a leading voice in AAPI mental health advocacy thanks to her firsthand experiences ranging from psychiatric hospitals to town halls to Capitol Hill. In addition to leading North Carolina's AAPI mental health education initiatives, Pooja is the proud founder of the Raj Mehta Day of Good, an international day of doing good hosted annually on her late brother’s birthday.

About the director:

Dr. Changfu Chang is an award-winning filmmaker and storyteller whose work centers on identity, migration, and cross-cultural narratives. With decades of experience, his documentaries—including Ricki’s Promise, Daughters’ Return, and The Invisible Red Thread—have explored themes of adoption, belonging, and Chinese diasporic life. As director of Silent War: Asian American Reckonings with Mental Health, he brings a deeply human lens to untold stories that bridge cultures and challenge stigma.

Location & Parking Information

The Rubenstein Arts Center is nestled within the university’s central campus on Campus Drive, across from the Nasher Museum of Art and near the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Limited free parking for visitors, including accessible parking, is available starting at 6:30 PM in the Campus Drive lot.

• The entrance to the lot is on Anderson Street; the gate will be open.
• Spaces are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
• This lot is across the street from the Rubenstein Arts Center.
• Visitors attending the film screening to not need to pay for parking via BlueSpot.

There is also sometimes free street parking along Alexander Avenue (southbound side) and Oregon Street (southbound side).

Public Transit

The easiest way to reach the Rubenstein Arts Center from elsewhere on campus is to take a free Duke Transit shuttle along Campus Drive. The main East-West bus (C1) runs seven days a week during the academic year, with service throughout the day and well into the night.

Visitors to Duke can also consider taking public transit. GoDurham buses are fare-free (via the Umo app or card); GoDurham #6 stops at Duke University Rd and Anderson St., next to the Nasher Museum.

For those coming from UNC Chapel Hill, the Robertson Express bus runs daily between the Morehead Planetarium and Science Drive Circle. It is then only a short walk from Science Drive to Abele Quad, where the C1 East-West bus is located.