Far East Deep South is a 2020 American documentary film about a Chinese American family's journey to search for their family roots. Instead of leading them to the Far East to a remote village in China, it took them to the deep south into the small town of Cleveland in the Mississippi Delta. [1]
Far East Deep South had its world premiere at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival on March 6, 2020, winning the audience award for best documentary just as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters forcing the film to go virtual the rest of 2020 and into 2021. [2] The TV broadcast premiere on May 4, 2021, was on PBS via World Channel's program America ReFramed. [3]
Plot
Baldwin Chiu and brother, Edwin, begin with the assumption that they are first generation Chinese Americans living in San Francisco. However, they find out their Chinese grandfather is buried in Mississippi. This new information leads the Chiu family on a voyage of discovery that will change forever the family they thought they knew. Their journey begins with one question. How did Chinese people end up in segregated Mississippi in the latter part of the 19th century? [4] Looming large in the documentary is the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which directly impacted Chiu's family. Chiu's grandfather and great-grandfather served a predominately Black clientele and the documentary visits with Chinese American families who remained and some Black families who remember the store. Their stories of friendship and alliances contrast the Asian-Black conflicts of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. [5]
Selected cast
- Larissa Lam, Director/co-producer, Writer
- Baldwin Chiu, aka Only Won, Producer
- Judy Chu
- Gordon H. Chang
Accolades
- 2022: Telly Award - History category TV Documentary
- 2021: Best Documentary Grand Jury, Seattle Asian American Film Festival. [6]
- 2020: Audience Award, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.
- 2020: Best Mississippi Feature, Oxford Film Festival. [7]
- 2020: Audience Award Best Documentary, CAAMFest
- 2020: Audience Award Best Documentary, Philadelphia Asian Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival [8]
- 2020: Best Feature, Women's Texas Film Festival. [9]
- 2021: Mary Pickford Award, Coronado Island Film Festival [10]
- 2021: "Best of 2021" - PBS and Video Librarian. [11]
References
- ^ The Boston Globe, Accessed 28 May 2021.
- ^ Cinequest Film: “Far East Deep South” Accessed 2 March 2020.
- ^ Broadway World, Accessed 29 March 2021.
- ^ Movie Guide. Accessed 2 May 2021.
- ^ "PBS doc traces Chinese American link to Mississippi Delta". Pasadena Weekly. May 6, 2021.
- ^ SAAFF 2021.
- ^ "THE 2020 OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS". Production Hub. June 9, 2020.
- ^ "2020 Festival Recap". PAAFF. November 1, 2020. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
- ^ WTFF Best Feature 2020.
- ^ "Coronado Island Film Festival Wraps Up The Highly Successful 2021 Festival". Coronado Eagle & Journal | Coronado News | Coronado Island News. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
- ^ Best of 2021.