''Far East Deep South'' is a 2020 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

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 Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

. 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? Looming large in the documentary is the

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...

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. ''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. The TV broadcast premiere was on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

May 4, 2021 via

World Channel WORLD Channel, also branded as WORLD, is an American digital multicast public television network owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. It is distributed by American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunicatio ...

's program

America ReFramed ''America ReFramed'' is a weekly independent documentary series broadcast on World Channel.Allison Willmor"America ReFramed brings 52 weeks of docs to PBS's WORLD Channel,"''IndieWire'', September 11, 2012. Retrieved 2013-11-13. Since 2012, Ameri ...

Selected cast

Larissa Lam Larissa Lam is a singer, songwriter, Chinese American talk show host, music executive, filmmaker, and producer from Diamond Bar, California. She won the 2015 Hollywood Music in Media Award in the Best Dance Song category for her song "I Feel Al ...

, Director/co-producer, Writer * Baldwin Chiu, aka

Only Won Baldwin Chiu (born May 17, 1974), known professionally as Only Won, is an American rapper, actor, producer and stunt performer. As a hip hop artist, he writes/performs rap, beatboxing, and singing. He is also a member of the Screen Actors Gu ...

, Producer *

Judy Chu Judy May Chu (born July 7, 1953) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she has held a seat in Congress since 2009, representing until redistricting. Chu is the first Chin ...

* Gordon H. Chang

Accolades

* 2022: Telly Award - History category TV Documentary * 2021: Best Documentary Grand Jury,

Seattle Asian American Film Festival The Seattle Asian American Film Festival was founded in 1985 and has been revived over the years by different producers. The current iteration was founded in 2012 and made its debut in 2013 by co-founders Kevin Bang and Vanessa Au. It is a reviva ...

. * 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 The Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) is an annual film festival in Philadelphia that shows feature films and short films by and about Asian Americans. Run by the nonprofit Philadelphia Asian American Film and Filmmakers, the 10-da ...

* 2020: Best Feature, Women's Texas Film Festival. *2021: Mary Pickford Award,

Coronado Island Film Festival The Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Coronado, a resort city across the San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It consists of a four-day festival in November – and a monthly year-round "Classic Movie Seri ...

*2021: "Best of 2021" -

and Video Librarian. Best of 2021.
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References

{{Reflist Chinese-American culture Cleveland, Mississippi 2020 documentary films 2020 films