On this episode of The Edit, we spoke with Pacific Standard contributing editor Peter C. Baker and documentary filmmaker Yu Gu. Gu and Baker both worked on projects about former Jeopardy! contestant and influential blogger Arthur Chu. Baker attended college with Chu, and in 2015 wrote a profile of Chu that covered his controversial run on the game show, and how his writing on the misogynistic elements of nerd culture came at a crucial time for the country, especially in the wake of the tragic Isla Vista killings carried out by a young man named Elliot Rodger.
While Baker was trailing Chu for his profile, Gu and her creative partner Scott Drucker were in the process of filming a documentary of Chu’s life called Who Is Arthur Chu?, which investigates Chu’s family life and struggles with Internet trolls that were a result of his public writing about Gamergate. In this episode, we talk to Baker about his profile, his relationship with Chu, and the fallout from the Isla Vista tragedy. We then speak with Gu about the process behind filming a documentary, Chu’s family life, and smashing the model minority myth.
You can read Baker’s profile of Chu here and you can find Gu and Drucker’s documentary available on digital release here.
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