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.The Boston Globe, Accessed 28 May 2021.
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.Cinequest Film: “Far East Deep South” Accessed 2 March 2020.
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?Movie Guide. Accessed 2 May 2021. 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.
Selected cast Larissa Lam, Director/co-producer, Writer Baldwin Chiu, aka Only Won, Producer Judy Chu Gordon H. Chang
Release The TV broadcast premiere of Far East Deep South was on May 4, 2021 on PBS via World Channel's program America ReFramed.Broadway World, Accessed 29 March 2021. The film is available for digital streaming on Tubi.
Accolades 2022: Telly Award - History category TV Documentary 2021: Best Documentary Grand Jury, Seattle Asian American Film Festival.SAAFF 2021. 2021: Best Documentary Award, Coronado Island Film Festival 2020: Audience Award, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival. 2020: Best Mississippi Feature, Oxford Film Festival. 2020: Audience Award Best Documentary, CAAMFest 2020: Audience Award Best Documentary, Philadelphia Asian Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2020: Best Feature, Women's Texas Film Festival.WTFF Best Feature 2020. 2021: Mary Pickford Award, Coronado Island Film Festival 2021: "Best of 2021" - PBS and Video Librarian.Best of 2021.
See also Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta
References