November 7, 2020

Baldwin Chiu was just digging into his family history a little, expecting his recent family roots to lead him somewhere in east. Instead, he finds himself taking a sharp turn south. Mississippi, that is. What started as a simple inquiry about his family history opened up to a trove of untold history. In “Far East Deep South,” we follow Chiu as he uncovers the history of his family, and of larger Chinese-American communities, more deeply intertwined with the story of America than his AP history books ever let on. Chiu discussed with PAAFF what it was like discovering his family and his community’s history far back in the U.S., the shared histories of segregation between Chinese-Americans and Black Americans, and how he is pushing to get his film into classrooms to change the face of American history. This film has expanded monumentally from a short documentary into a feature, not to mention an education initiative. Tell me about the moment you knew this was to become a bigger project and what it’s been like expanding. Baldwin Chiu: It wasn’t necessarily one moment but more like a snowball of moments. When we were touring with our short documentary, “Finding Cleveland”, audience questions kept coming and we kept researching and discovering more. We were discovering so much history that we never learned in our AP History classes in California. The constant wave of audiences coming out to support our short film gave us an indication that there was a hunger and demand for stories like ours to be told. Fairly early on, it was clear that there was still more history to be told beyond our short and we ended discovering even more family revelations that were life-changing. Expanding the story was challenging in that there was so much history to cover, but we had to pick and choose what we could include in the context of our film as it related to the family story. We also realized that this was not just a family story. It was also the story of America. One challenge you faced was making sure in telling your family’s history, you didn’t diminish or perpetuate tensions between Black and Chinese-American communities. How did you navigate this and what you found surprising in the process? Baldwin Chiu: We were actually very surprised to discover that in the south during this Jim Crow era, that the African American and Chinese American communities had a very favorable relationship with one another. Growing up in California and knowing the history in the major cities, especially, were fraught with tension between the black and Asian community, we were very surprised to learn about this. Jim Crow laws preventing Chinese and Blacks from living in white neighborhoods led to these two communities developing a symbiotic relationship. We felt it was important to hear from the Black community first hand and not just go by what the white or Chinese Americans recounted. At least in the 1800s and early 1900s, there was a respect between the black and Chinese community in the South that we don’t always see today. We consulted with our African American friends, historians, and social activists regarding these topics to make sure we weren’t diminishing their story but instead, adding to their story to show our shared history. We wanted this shared history to make Black history more relevant to Asians. Tell me about what you learned in having to really focus in on making your film not only historically accurate but racially sensitive to both Black and Chinese-American communities? Baldwin Chiu: When we were consulting other Black filmmakers, historians and residents in the Mississippi Delta, we learned that there were certain points of sensitivity and it affected how we edited our film. For instance, we took out any references anyone made about Chinese and their work ethic. It was brought to our attention that this could be misinterpreted to imply that only Chinese had a good work ethic and that the Blacks didn’t, even though we weren’t making that comparison at all. There is sensitivity to the Asian model minority myth from both communities too. We wanted to minimize anything that could be misconstrued or would continue to perpetuate stereotypes. Tell me about what it’s been like using your film to include Chinese-Americans in U.S. History. Baldwin Chiu: It’s been really encouraging to see progress made in terms of teachers starting to use our film in schools and making US history lessons on segregation more inclusive of the Asian experience. Recently, a high school history class in Oregon watched our film and it really changed the perspective of the students who were predominantly non-Asian. Many of the students commented how they never knew that the Chinese faced so much discrimination in this country like being subject to Jim Crow laws and the Chinese Exclusion Act. We’ve also had a professor at a university in Missouri change his US history syllabus each semester to always include a discussion about the Chinese and the Mississippi Delta when they cover the American South. Our goal Is to see the way US history is taught in schools to be more inclusive of the Asian experience and those of other underrepresented groups in our history books, not just to be diverse, but to be accurate. We just signed on with New Day Films for our educational distribution so we hope that leads to our film being shown at more schools. Tell me about some memorable conversations this film has sparked for you. Baldwin Chiu: We’ve had a lot of people apologizing to us about asking the question, “Where are you really from?” after they’ve seen our film,  I think we’ve made a lot of people that are not Asian think about the implicit bias that people have towards those of us of Asian descent.  There is a presumption that someone with an Asian face is not from the US or maybe doesn’t even belong here. We showed an early version of our

Lying somewhere between dream and nightmare, American immigrants face a tenuous existence in a land that never quite feels like home. Whether regularly fighting deportation or struggling with the monotony of life on alien soil, the films in our program Uncertain Movements represent reality for those who have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place in the so-called land of the free. The filmmakers featured in this short film program chatted with us about their films and their dreams. Keep Saray Home (Best Documentary Short Nominee) Director: Brian Redondo Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less. Redondo: Southeast Asian families face deportation with courage. Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome? Redondo: While filming the climactic scene of the film, I got emotional and once you see the film, you’ll know why. I was operating the camera and the footage gets wildly shaky because of my reaction. Normally this footage would be unuseable. But we decided to go with it anyway because the emotion rings true even though the shot was “ruined.” What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future? Redondo: I want to see a much broader range of stories, story formats, and story-tellers. For the medium to continue growing, fresh ideas and fresh perspectives are key. In the documentary world, I hope to continue making films for and about Asian Americans and people of color, and give voice to topics not normally discussed. But I also hope to do this in new, challenging ways that stretch the genre itself. What’s next for you? Redondo: I’m editing a short documentary about an experimental nature program at prisons in the Pacific Northwest. Passage Director: Asavari Kumar Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less. Kumar: A woman recounts her immigration journey. Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome? Kumar: The fact that we were able to make this project with people who we love and respect was inherently a magical experience. Passage unfolds very much like a personal essay where a series of events are retold– warped and colored by memories and emotions. The biggest challenge for us was creating the visual language of the film. We wanted to strike a balance between being deeply specific and personal, while still being abstract enough so that the viewer could project their own journey onto the story. What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future? Kumar: I hope to see more representation and nuanced depictions of diasporic identity in mainstream media. As a creative practitioner that is medium agnostic, I hope to use every feasible opportunity to push for this transition through collaboration, community support, and collective action. Our production company Supernova Design, in addition to prioritizing the hiring of women and POC artists for our creative projects, sets aside resources to help non-profits and give back to organizations that help POC and minority communities. What’s next for you? Kumar: We are in development for a feature animation project and are collaborating on developing an animated series. Both projects are targeted at adult audiences and highlight South Asian voices and experiences. We were recently awarded a grant from Adobe to create an augmented reality short film titled ‘A New Normal’. This project was created during quarantine with a team of remote artists and has made us curious about exploring narrative work in the XR space. Over the next few years, we are hoping to explore different mediums and continue creating short and long-form projects that highlight the voices and stories of the South Asian diaspora. Transplant Director: Zheyu Liang Without spoiling anything, describe your film in 7 words or less. Liang: Tenacious Chinese immigrants try to find a home on alien soil. Do you have a favorite memory from making this film? Were there any challenges that you had to overcome? Liang: Being able to just stay with, observe my subjects’ daily lives, and see how they hold each other’s hands to get through the hardest time together, is definitely my favorite memory when I was filming. It’s an observational doc and I got tons of footage, so it was kind of hard when I was in post-production. It just took me a while to finish the film. What do you hope to see in the future for the film industry? How do you see yourself and your work playing a role in this future? Liang: I hope the film industry can create a free and supportive environment for our young Asian and Asian American women filmmakers and that we can get more chances to speak our own stories into the world. I will keep pursuing my passion-turned-career as a film director and making films that challenge and inspire the world with my distinctive voice and personal experience. As a young Asian woman director, I will also continue to commit to telling diverse stories of the underrepresented and bringing to the foreground the struggles of the Chinese and Asian experience in America. What’s next for you? Liang: I am currently working on my first feature documentary “Mother Love”, which is about three Chinese “only child” families. After almost a lifetime’s sacrifice and “unconditional love” for their only child, three mothers finally let go and embark on a journey of pursuing their own lives while navigating their tense mother-son relationships. Taking an observational approach, the film explores issues about expectation, loss, loneliness and pressure that have largely been hidden in plain sight. The film will uncover the underrepresented stories about how One Child Policy affected millions of families and impacted people for a lifetime.   To watch this short film program, Uncertain Movements, you can purchase access here. This program is available from November 5th