Free Chol Soo Lee | post-screening Q&A

good evening welcome to the Billy Wilder theater home of the public programs for the UCLA film and television archive my name is May home has young and I am the director of the archive welcome to tonight's screening of free chol Suli before we begin as a land grant institution the film a television archive at UCLA would like to acknowledge our presence on the traditional ancestral and unseated territory at the Gabrielino and tongva peoples we are humbled to do work in this community the UCLA film and television archive is founded on the conviction that moving images are a vital record of shared cultural heritage and human history there is tremendous responsibility in this Collective work and so though I stand Here representing the film and television archive as one I really represent the voices and efforts of many so we want to thank the Asian American study center our excellent Partners on this program including Karen umamoto its director and their fantastic staff including Meg Thornton we're grateful to Charlene tonai din Jennifer Chen and filmmaker Julie ha who helped shape this evening's program I also want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for funding this program part of the Making Waves series which centers bypoc filmmakers and their work all of the archive screenings in the Wilder are free thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor and we're grateful to them for their support and to the Hammer Museum for their partnership we thank the UCLA documentary film Legal Clinic the UCLA Asian American studies Department the UCLA Korean American Student Association the UCLA luskin School of public affairs and I'm going to say UCLA again and the UCLA Nikkei student union for spreading the word about this important event please give these tremendous individuals organizations and all our supporters a round of applause [Applause] Partnerships are at the core of the archives efforts and I'm honored that the archive has worked closely with the ethnic study centers on campus here at UCLA next month we will partner with the American Indian study center on a contemporary survey of indigenous filmmaking with imagining indigenous Cinema new voices New Visions the nine night program launches in June and features dozens of films and many programs with filmmakers present screenings are free and they'll take place here at the Billy Wilder theater and also across town at the vidiots theater in Eagle Rock please visit cinema.ucla.edu for that fantastic lineup before we begin tonight's future presentation the archive will share a short a special short made by UCLA alumni and student filmmakers as part of our see the bigger picture series we produce see the bigger picture to present unique stories that expand the view into the regenerative role of the archive tonight's Short episode features UCLA distinguished professor and art historian John Noriega who reflects on the power of preserving an orphaned in Landmark television series reflecciones through the archives partnership with the Chicano studies Research Center and now for the reason why we are here tonight I'm honored that the film and television archive is partnered with the Asian American studies Center to screen Julie ha and Eugene Yee's moving documentary about Injustice the carceral system and an Asian American movement free tulsuli is bound to evoke strong feelings the documentary contains multitudes and at times it's shocking and disheartening but the film is really anchored in the radical belief that Justice is possible tonight's program brings together incredible speakers in a panel following the screening to reflect on the impact of Chul Suli and the movement that sprung from his unjust and racist conviction tonight's panel moderated bars Charlene tanai Den extra the external vice president for the UCLA Nikkei student union and features filmmakers Julie ha and Eugene Yee as well as Mike Suzuki who assisted the chosu lead legal defense team Curran Kim a former incarcery Jay Lee Wong founding member of the chol Suli defense committee and Benjamin Kang advisor for the UCLA korean-american Student Association we brought this group together really because we wanted to talk about the impact not just of the film but as it stands in this contemporary moment so we're really excited to convene it and hope that you will participate and join in the Q a as well before we begin the program I'm pleased to be joined by professor and vice Provost David Yu to say a few words Dr you is a social historian of the United States and the lead editor for the Oxford Handbook of Asian American history he is the author editor of eight books including contentious Spirits religion and Korean American history 1903-1945 since 2016 Dr Yu has served as the vice Provost of The Institute of American cultures the central Hub to four ethnic study centers on campus including the Asian American study center please join me in welcoming Dr Yu to the stage [Applause] good evening thanks May and I wanted to really appreciate the partnership that we have with the film and television archive and also thank you for thanking all those other groups so I don't have to do that and I'm really here on behalf of the Asian American study center to welcome all of you to today's event um the event today and the film uh screening is something that I think is really important I I am a historian Asian American historian and so I think it is important his you know historically but it also for me is in some ways personal um I got to know Chelsea Lee uh towards the end of his life and um we often would speak by phone he was living in San Francisco and I was here in Los Angeles and during those last few years we would have these conversations and um as part of that we were very fortunate and about 10 years ago in 2013 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his release we did an event here in West LA which was probably one of his last public events and we did that in here in West L.A and he was able to be there along with KW Lee who you'll obviously see in the film and it was a really great experience to be able to do that but in those conversations that he and I would have there was a consistent through line in his um in those conversation it was really that he wanted people to know about his story he wanted to tell his story and he specially wanted young people to hear that story and so I think it's really fitting that this documentary film this really great film is really an extension of doing that telling Chelsea Lee's story and so I'm really grateful that the filmmakers and their team have really done this project and we were having dinner earlier and it was really great to be able to hear more aspects about the film and so I think that his story is really important on so many levels and I think what's what's inspiring is that this film will hopefully uh really get that story out as somebody who teaches Asian American studies and I've been doing that for about the last 25 or 30 years I would say that Chelsea Lee's story is not really that well known even within those of us who do Asian American studies and so I'm really glad to be part of this program and really my hope is that his story really will get a much wider hearing and viewing and so that that the legacy of what you know he experienced and I think what really came through for those conversations as well was his ability to survive and the resilience that he had in the face of such tremendous adversity and Injustice and I think that his the tones of our conversation what I was really Amazed by with all the things that he went through the tone really was was still hopeful for what the future could hold so I hope that this I'm really glad that this film is part of that effort to tell his story thank you hi good evening um thank you so so much for spending your evening here with us tonight there are obviously many places you could be so really means so much that you chose to be here with us we have often spoken of this film as a six-year labor of love the the movement to free chalsu itself also took six years and we've always found a tremendous amount of meaning in that rhyme we have a few thank yous as well so we hope you'll indulge Us in these um I mean of course thank you to May and David Karen umamoto who couldn't be here today Meg Thornton and um and Amanda Salazar as well of UCLA Asian American study center and the UCLA film intelligent television archive for organizing this it's just such a thrill to be here um and we're just so honored to be here with you and also just want to thank our panelists again uh Jay Mike Kim Benjamin and our moderator Charlene and Kern um you will like they're all Extraordinary People and I hope you'll get to just I'm just so happy that you'll get to hear them speak about their experiences they're just extraordinary so thank you so much to all of you as well and we also want to extend our thanks to the UCLA uh documentary film Legal Clinic who which volunteered so much to uh or which did so much work on behalf of our film as well the the Nikkei Student Union the Korean American Student Association the UCLA Asian American studies department and the leskin school of public affairs thank you this is an extra special screening for us um and not just because I'm a bruin class of 1994. um I feel indebted actually to the Asian American studies Center for helping grow my consciousness um there's so many ties actually between the free Chelsea Lee Story and UCLA the Asian American studies Center supported chosu Lee himself and tried to make sure this history would not be forgotten through its sponsored Symposium issues of amerasia Journal that highlighted the freach also leave movement former Asian American studies grad student Richard Kim who's here edited Chelsea Lee's prison Memoir which is available on amazon.com we highly recommend reading it um the center's enduring support of journalists and Community leader KW Lee who's featured in the film the former M.A student Derek Lim wrote his master's thesis on the free Chelsea lead movement while he was here I believe activist Jaylee Wong who's going to join us on the panel used to work for the center an activist Warren for Tony um used to teach Asian American Studies classes um and even with the free Chelsea Lee film the center provided early and very important funding support thank you David Yu Jerry Kong I mean when you're an independent film getting that early support when you don't have very much is really crucial so thank you so much for believing in us and thank you Russell Leong I think he might have been the first one to mention um mention the project to David the center is generous sharing of resources too in terms of footage and photos to our film we really appreciate that and as Eugene mentioned the invaluable pro bono legal help that the UCLA documentary film Legal Clinic provided to freechell Suli thank you Dan maieda it's also worth noting that some 45 years ago the free tulsely movement was very much alive on the UCLA campus one activist Gary Edo told us about the kalbi plate fundraisers he and other activists held on the Jan steps to raise money for Chelsea's defense team or he'd go to KSA meetings trying to recruit supporters there is even coverage of the chosuli case in the campus Pacific ties which incidentally I used to edit when I was a student here so it's just extra meaningful to have UCLA students today involved in the planning of this event including Charlene Den the daughter of a free Chelsea Lee activist Granton and it's wonderful to see that beautiful intergenerational hand down and connection um so yes we're so thrilled that we get to bring this history of Chelsea Lee and this one-of-a-kind movement he inspired to new audiences and to a new generation we know that more than 40 years ago it inspired a whole generation of young college students um like Mike Suzuki and young people like jaylie Wong and it made them feel like they could actually possibly do the impossible that if they if they worked hard enough toward a collective action that was righteous that they could actually accomplish their goals we look forward to the intergenerational conversation with our panel after the screening and we thank you so much for coming out tonight again um we hope this film and this story will move you as much as it does us um we'd also like to close just by um by relating some words of KW Lee the journalist in the film um he's actually my mentor and the reason I became a journalist and a very influential figure for Eugene as well um he he's 94 going on 95 soon and he very badly would love to join us for these screenings but has been unable to so we'd just like to communicate a few of his words the undying moral lesson of this story boils down to Universal human sentiments love courage decency fairness that transcend birth breed Creed and borders separating human beings from Beasts more than 40 years ago some of the most beautiful people to walk this earth work together to demonstrate the undying American proposition that the humblest Among Us are equal to kings queens and presidents thank you we hope you enjoy the film wow thank you so much for that amazing film um please join me in welcoming the panelists for tonight's event first our moderator Charlene tonight Den is a third year student at UCLA and serves as the external vice president for the Nikkei Student Union on campus she grew up learning about Lee's story from her father Grant din who is a member of the Bay Area committee to free Chelsea Lee Julie ha is a Storyteller whose career spans 20 years in journalism and more recently as a document or filmmaker a graduate of UCLA she's written for the Hartford Quran to the rafu shimpo and the LA times and it served as the editor for the corium journal during which time she led award-winning coverage of the 20-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots free Chelsea Lee is her first documentary film project Eugene Yee yes [Applause] Eugenie filmmaker film editor and journalist has won several awards for his work he's received the national media makers fellows award for the Bay Area video Coalition for free Chelsea Lee Yi served as assistant editor for inside job which won the Academy Award for best documentary and his web video work has been featured in numerous Publications including CNN Frontline and the New York Times Eugene did not go to UCLA but he is in Angelino welcome Eugene [Applause] Jaylee Wong is a founding member of Chelsea Lee defense committee which built a national movement to educate and mobilize Korean and other communities about the criminal justice system that led to freedom of chol Suli Jay is a lead consultant at the California women's foundation for women California women Rising as Statewide network of women and girl leaders from low-income communities engaged in social change Jay previously worked at the California endowment as director of Southern California California region sorry I realize this is making a lot of noise I apologize Mike Suzuki assisted the chol Suli legal defense team in the successful retrial of the 1973 San Francisco Chinatown homicide ultimately leading to the freedom for cholsuli in 1983 foreign [Applause] Kim speaks as a former incarceree on issues of criminal and Juvenile Justice Reform and the culture of Shame and the model minority myth in the Asian Pacific Islander Community Curran is active with the national Juvenile Justice Network and API rise Asian and Pacific Islander re-entry and inclusion through social through support and empowerment thank you Karen [Applause] last but not least Benjamin King is a senior at UCLA a second generation korean-american and a four-year staff member at UCLA Casa which is the UCLA Korean American Student Association then previously served as a representative for the UCLA Asian Pacific Coalition from 2020 to 2021 organizing fundraisers in the Korean Koreatown youth Community Center this is our panel welcome thank you thank you so much may and thank you all for being here um just for the sake of time I want to get straight into it for our first question I'm wondering if the directors I know you've been traveling a lot um showing the film to different audiences I'm wondering what the reaction has been as well as if there's any memorable conversations or stories that have come out of that yeah we've been fortunate actually to be able to have shared this film for like a year and a half now um we had our Sundance Premiere in January 2022 um and the film's been on PBS right now too so it's been really incredible um it's hard to narrow down all the responses um I think I'll say very um generally that um Chelsea Lee is um touching people today as he did more than 40 years ago um there's something about his honesty his um vulnerability that innate friendliness that KW talks about that is actually still reaching people and audiences today whether it's in Germany or the UK across the United States and Korea um his pain his struggle his resilience um it's coming through just as it did more than 40 years ago and helped inspire a movement um I'll say like I think one of the most touching um conversations that you know our film has sparked is um the impact this film has had on those who are formally incarcerated um and um we have been fortunate to have partnered with a couple of community organizations that support incarcerated and formally incarcerated Asian American Pacific Islanders including Kearns group API rise and a group called Asian prisoner support committee and I do remember like one screening we had in San Francisco last year there was a member of the Asian prisoner support Committee in the audience and after the film he was just so overcome with emotion he could barely talk but he wanted to um he tried to express basically that um what Chelsea shared in the film and what his experience um he finally felt seen and heard um and we got a very similar kind of reaction from a young woman a korean-american woman who saw the film and her brother was formerly incarcerated and um you know she had she she just said she was so moved by it because she'd never seen a korean-american story of somebody incarcerated like this um that showed just all of all of the humanity this issue is still actually stigmatized I think in our Asian American Community um and so she also um was so grateful that the experiences of her her brother and also her family were expressed through this film so I think that's been the really touching part of it and um I'll just add that I think you know as has been mentioned earlier I mean because the story was so little known one of our real goals from the beginning was to get this history restored to our community to just to into the history books and and it's just with a tremendous sense of gratitude that you know for the last year and a half we've been able to share the film we've been able to to have this run that that I mean I don't think we really could ever have expected it to have and and we're just so so hopeful that this is a step in the direction of this history being remembered this history being put in the books because we just feel so strongly that this is a history that deserves to be remembered and should be remembered as well as the incredible people who were there who who've reached halsuli and who made this history themselves thank you Jin Julie and on that note of learning about the stories of those who were involved I want to ask Jay and Mike both about that period of struggle that was highlighted in the film um what your reactions and thoughts were during that time where chosu was dealing with like gang involvement drug abuse as well as whether you have found peace with this story sure so first I want to thank Eugene and Julie for making this film um to be able to reflect back on 40 years in 83 minutes is huge and for me um watching the film several times now each time I watch it I feel a sense of closure and I think that that's related to having uh peace I was in my 20s you know believe it or not we're younger a lot younger when I first got involved in cheersley movement I read KW Lee's story and stayed up all night crying because I felt so strongly it just really felt like my story although I was on a different track I went to work I was working with Warren through tiny um at the continuation high school for Asian American Youth who did not make it into the regular system and uh shared the story with some of the youth and Charlie Park was one of the young people that we worked with said he's innocent he didn't even read the story but he said he's innocent he was framed and that night we actually piled into our my little Toyota and drove up to DBI because we had to meet Jersey in person you know when you're 20 you could drive all night and you'll be fine you know so we did that and uh just going to the prison and meeting Church in person was a huge huge experience for all of us and we could be all waiting one at a time after the clearance and one thing I remember he was chain smoking but his eyes were very clear and he said I'm innocent and we all believed that so from that point point on we are very single focused on printer soup you know getting him out of jail when I look back there were many moments of Sorrow we made lots of mistakes victories uh share Joys and then we also disagreed you know but that's what it is to be uh building a movement and uh um so for a long time I actually felt like I was carrying a lot of those very very mixed emotions of my shorter and it was only after they I saw this film I felt the sense of uh Pride accomplishment but also tremendous sadness and also recognition that we have a lot a lot more to do but really for the first time I feel like I could just just kind of drop my shoulder and feel that there is a sense of closure that's great thank you thank you I uh for me um yes I also um uh have that sense of closure every time I've seen uh this film um I I was a youngster I was at the other UC campus in the Bay Area you see Berkeley but I had many friends here at UCLA there was many UCLA students were also in the committee down here but I was fortunate that um um as you saw uh Dave kakashiba and Jeff adachi brought that to us I was in Asian American Studies major um they had seen chosu told his story and how could you not be involved um yes so I was at the hot link sales and the dance parties and and the demonstrations at the at the courthouses um and I wanted to continue on as you know uh is this span the course of six years and so uh I wanted to continue to be involved so I went to law school like so many others um there were probably a dozen of us that ultimately went to law school because of our involvement in the chosu-li case so I was fortunate that I had was in my second year when the breed trial was coming up and so I was helping yes Tony Sarah and Stuart Hanlon and and the other attorneys as well including Ronco Yamada so uh uh seeing these these um seeing this film uh also brings to me I guess a perspective that we didn't have because every everybody there was hundreds of people involved everybody had a different experience my experience was focused more toward the legal case and um uh uh seeing the film brings up well actually surprises me again again 40 years later that how we could have accomplish that because yes I've been a practicing lawyer for the past 35 years and it's it's it still amazes me and it reminds me today that uh what we did was actually the The Impossible and I have not in my 35 year career seen anything like that since um so that is my impressions thank you Jane Mike and thank you for all your work all these past decades um one of the things that I talked about with my dad before um preparing for this was the fact that chosu really his dream was to establish a organization like API rise which current is a part of that helps Asian Americans with the re-entry process from incarceration so as someone who's gone through that process Karen I'm hoping you can share a little bit about um what that was like for you personally as well as your work with API rise and other re-entry programs and the difference it has made in your life thank you um first of all I want to thank Julian Eugene again for making this film um first time I watched it was seeing the fact that you put spent half the film talking about his struggle Chelsea's struggle with re-entry really touched my heart because that was so hard in dealing with me coming home um I earned my parole in 2012 prior to all of the reforms that happened in California and they had no idea how to deal with uh life or Parolees I was a juvenile sentenced as an adult to life in prison at age 16 I spent 20 years in prison so I'm coming home at 36 still you know with a lot of Life Lift for my future and um at that time people coming home were like in their 60s and 70s expecting just to be on SSI and live the rest of their life you know without being and really able to accomplish much but then um there was no re-entry support back then they didn't know what to do with us because of the fact that you know Chira was 36 years old and still wanting to live my life and um so I thought I could go back and get support from the Asian Community but because of our issue with uh cultural shame I found a lot of rejection and no one really felt understood what I was going through but I also did not have anyone outside of the Asian Community who I could relate to because so few lifers had come at that point and so um with all the pressure I was facing coming home from the Asian Community to really keep quiet about my past and even though I'd spent more than half my life in prison I couldn't talk about it because people felt very uncomfortable hearing about that and so I had to separate myself from Asian Community um and really started working in the advocacy space with involving latinx and African-American communities and um later as more people started coming home as the reform started happening in California um more and more Asians were coming home and the first group of Asians to come home also felt a lot of pressure to hide their past and it wasn't until enough of us came home that we could build a support network and feel like a have a legitimate Community to find comfort with shared experiences learn from our mistakes to make in the re-entry process ways to deal with um all the cultural aspects of our community but also we dealt with issues of deportation lots of Asian Pacific Islanders come to this country they're either undocumented or they came as refugees and their parents thought because I'm a refugee I don't I'm I have a special immigration status I don't need to get my citizenship well unfortunately you know getting involved in criminal activity violates that contract and you're facing deportation so people who had lived here their entire lives suddenly because of the fact that their parents didn't um get their American citizenship suddenly we're up for deportation and even if they tried to apply for the citizenship as adults it's like well you didn't register for the draft at 18. so you're kind of screwed right there and so so we really try to bring the community together much like um and much like the Tulsa League committee did for the trials when we when people go through these deportation hearings at the immigration courts you know um resources and knowledge that we could all share um we bring that all together and we tie it together to a place like API rise so people can really understand hey there's people there's resources and we're all here to help you and you don't have to feel alone because most people I'm sure there are lots of people who went through deportation proceedings you know involved in minor crimes that didn't involve incarceration but yet they had no idea what type of resources were available and struggled with their deportation hearings thank you so much and thank you for sharing your story as well as the relevance to today um building off of that I'm wondering um if you all could share how you feel that the film has extended or can continue to extend um the legacy of chosuli well yeah I mean I would hope um I hope our panelists will chime in here but um you know I think foreign you know I think the part that always brings me to tears when I think about this story is just the depth of humanity and compassion that was shown by these activists and the type of movement that they built and imagined you know the the type of social movement this country has never seen before it wasn't just also young um you know radical College age activists it was also middle-aged Korean immigrants who actually started the movement it was um Korean immigrant elderly including church-going grandmothers who were probably politically conservative who joined this movement um that's a very unusual collection when you think about a social movement but it makes you think about what's possible and I think that's what we were hoping um with this film when people know this this history you know you think about what's what's possible um I think we're living also you know at a time when it's so easy to feel very helpless and hopeless um you know our community also is being ravaged by this incredible spike in anti-asian violence um and we just have so many also pressing issues as a country you know when it comes to Criminal Justice Reform um School violence so many issues but we hope that also like when you see what these people did more than 40 years ago um you'll think you know that it is possible you know when people work together toward a righteous cause um you know it's hard very hard work right but it is possible and I think um you know I think that's a message that we really need to hear today I completely agree with what Julie just shared um I just want to emphasize that this is a history but I'm hoping that the message that we we could make change that we are the ones who could really make change is what's carried through um you know I am concerned about the times we live in and this is a challenging times and the uh each of the ethnic groups have been pitted against each other gender orientation sexual orientation you name it I mean just very very divisive times we live in and I really hope that that we did it and we could continue to do it and we have to do it because we cannot stop organizing and building movements to change our lives not just for ourselves for our for our children and I'm so happy to Second see second generation activists here you know who join this panel but uh just if anything I plea with the audience here that you know as uh say in Spanish you see SE puede we could we could do it Ben do you want to share yeah um so I actually when I first heard about this film I remember asking my mom have you heard have you heard about this case and she was very surprised that I knew about this case and so I think it really speaks to how this film could connect the different Generations and kind of a quote from the film that I thought was really important was this wronging has been so wrong what are you going to do about it um I think it highlights the importance of these films that we need to keep raising awareness and getting more involved in these causes oh I mean I mean just to build on what's been said I think um you know as Julie mentioned it was not really kind of expected that people would come together like this and I think you know today Asian American is thought of as a demographic category but back then you know we were told by by folks where they're just not expected that Korean Chinese Japanese Filipino that folks would actually come together like this but they did and they overcame all of these barriers of just identity of language of generation of politics to find this common cause with Chelsea Lee and build this solidarity and this was you know not long after just the idea of Asian America had been created so so they were kind of carving out this like vision of what Asian America could be like this active and engaged community that has solidarity like at its root and I think there's just something that's so inspiring about that to think about that for me as I think about Asian American identity but also to sort of extend beyond the Asian American Community to sort of see where those common causes might be today and what those other communities might be where that common cause might be like where you can find those unlikely solidarities and just sort of build on this idea so so I mean again thank you so much for for just for just everything that you all have done and everything that you all are doing today thank you and um I think this is a time for a few questions from the audience um please raise your hand yes and I think we have Runners with mics foreign hi um I have a question for the filmmakers um uh one of the things I most appreciate about the film and I have I haven't heard about the story before I saw this film but one of the things that stood out to me was sort of how complete the story was and how you know rich and how many perspectives were in it and how you really went from you know the beginning of his life to the end of his life with a lot of detail and one of the things I was wondering as a filmmaker who had to sort of condense this you know decades-long story into this you know hour and 20 minute film is um is there anything that you you know had to cut or had to leave out or anything in the story that we didn't see um that you'd want to talk about or sort of the decision process behind that because I know that's one of the hardest parts and really doing that sort of thing we really don't have enough time for that now how long you got you know there there's just so much um you know we did like days long interviews with these activists and you just see Tiny Snippets of them we're just joking about that before the screening um and you know and and really incredible interviews actually they said the most amazing thing so um you know that I I think I just want to answer your question this way though um you know it did take us six long years um you know with an incredible team um who helped us um form this story this 83 minute story um and I have to say that like I know I felt like maybe I would never be at peace with how the film turned out because it seemed too big it seemed too big um and and how are we going to get it right but when we you know when we did see the Final Cut I I had a incredible sense of Peace um you know while we worked on this film it's a very personal project for us um you know I used to ask Chelsea Lee you know he's no longer with us but what do you want us to say what do you want to say in this film what do you want to tell people what do you want to tell all the people who rallied to your side what message do you want to give to them and so um you know thanks to um the people who live the story and who knew chosu um sharing so honestly with us um sharing their truth through everything Chelsea left behind in his writings and his interviews and his speeches and his intimate phone conversations with KW Lee like we really tried so hard to um really um get his truth across in this film um so I don't want to entertain maybe too many ideas what we what we don't have in it um and I just want to also point out um our narrator Sebastian Yoon whose voice you hear in the first two thirds of the film um I would say like he's actually formally incarcerated Korean American and he was the discovery of our producer sue Kim I we really felt like once he joined um our film team and he actually helped us script um the scenes for what Chelsea says in our film and really helped us understand the experience of being incarcerated um and that it was a you know mentally a very lonely isolating depressing experience and not just prison violence that Chelsea was confronting so much fell into place for us in terms of like feeling like we were getting closer to Chelsea's truth um sorry I didn't really answer your question two more sorry um some one of the scenes that really stuck with me in the film was when Chelsea was having his first talk at UC Davis and he's basically talking about the dissolution of his Humanity in prison as well as uh the sort of outrage that was happening during his funeral and to me I sort of read that as a call for abolitionism where like this is a very inhumane and irreparative system that's supposed to be punitive and that makes it really hard to facilitate re-entry into society and I was sort of wondering what sort of conversations any of you were hoping that this film would generate in terms of evolutionism or even in terms of broader topics like coalitional politics and the different ways that or different directions you want optimism to go next um abolitionism is a little bit of a heavy topic because um that term has been very much misinterpreted in the social justice movement um yes the whole incarceral system is horrible um mass incarceration was built on racism was built as a way to get around Jim Crow after the passage of the Civil Rights Act which is why the minority populations are so much more heavily affected by the prison system so yes that type of racist systemic racism needs to be abolished however um the issue with that the movement pushes today it's forgetting about the people who are already caught up in the system um there have been some organizations who have been criticized for having contracts with probation or the sheriff's department because they're all like oh you're working with the man how can we trust you the problem is how can you have access to help the people inside unless you have contracts with the sheriff's department who runs the county jails or probation who runs the juvenile halls or the prison system so what we're seeing today in California when Governor Newsom announced the closure of the Department of Juvenile Justice which is the state youth prison system um we're seeing the problem now is there was no preparation done on what to do with these kids you know so yes you're abolishing This Racist horrible and unjust system but then now people don't know what to do with the kids who are already there um thankfully judges are just like well let them out incarcerating kids is wrong you know they should be getting treatment so letting the kids out I think was a good practice run but um there needs to be a better implementation on what has been deemed abolition um and there needs to be less um conflict between those who are for purely abolition versus those who see reform as the better way to go because I'll be honest I saw some very dangerous people inside people I would not trust to live a mile away from me 10 miles away people I would not want out in society yes the system broke them and it is sad to say they are too far broken to be healed in a proper manner and the horrible the on the system that Chelsea talked about is what broke them um but it's unfortunate to say but if we I would not feel safe having some of them out I mean it's a messed up thing for me to talk about openly but I'm just being honest and um I don't know Mike just need to add about the juveniles it really is an eternal question right I mean um yes um Governor Newsome has has is disbanding the juvenile state prisons however where are they going to go in fact right now we're in a crisis situation with our our juvenile system and and the these State authorities uh overseeing the juvenile facilities want to close them down so not only are are we supposed are we supposed to take care of those those actually what would be considered the toughest toughest juvenile uh juveniles involved members we still can't deal with the people that are on the local level and there's there's been no question uh uh there's no answers at this point in time our community as much as the community is the best place for them to get the help that they need a committee doesn't really know how to deal with this I mean they didn't know how to deal with lifers coming home in 2012 2013. it took us to really fight to get people to understand what it was that we needed after having spent decades in prison you know um but unfortunately for kids they are children and yes they are 16 17 18 but they are still developmentally immature they don't know how to communicate their needs properly and as much as our hearts in the right place of wanting to get them the proper treatment that they need and the help that they can get they don't know how to tell us what they need and so that's what we're going to be dealing with here in California for a good 10 to 15 years now one more question if not I have a follow-up I'm just curious what organizations are doing that kind of work right now like or are trying to move into that space because I feel like so much of the conversation and I'm sorry if someone has a question please raise your hand it's just her but um so much of of of the tragedy of what happened after Chelsea was released was this Gap in terms of what institutional support was was available versus what people as individuals were able to do and that's one thing that we didn't get into in the film but so many of the activists were part of the movement just worked so hard to try and get cholsu going you know go to my bank account got him jobs got him housing just sort of were and we're sort of trying to sort of help him through his addiction there's just so much work that was done but but yeah I guess if you all could speak with your your expertise or your lived experience on where those gaps are now on who's working to fill those gaps they're I can't name like just any one or two organizations there are so many different organizations out there I mean early on the only work was being done by like Homeboy Industries near Chinatown you know because um father Greg Boyle really believed in in the work but um in the last I want to say eight years there's been an explosion of um organizations so I it's it's wrong for me to just name a handful because I mean honestly I was I've been out of the um General re-entry movement I focused a lot on um Asian Pacific Islander re-entry since the ad since the creation of API rise so um I it's hard for me to name one I mean the first group that I got involved with was the anti-recidivism Coalition um based in La um but we have inside out Riders we have impact Justice we have mass Liberation there's so many different organizations that I could name and soulmate that I can't meme but the the big struggle that the big question that people have is you know when someone comes home and they struggle the question is like dude you're not in prison anymore why are you struggling and it's not just a matter of not being in prison not having the four walls around you it's getting help for all the um issues that led you to get into prison in the first place and dealing with the traumas you experienced while inside um the funny thing is this movie comes out at a time when we all were incarcerated for two years and how many of you either experienced or heard on social media people saying oh my God I'm so I feel this anxiety going outside again and then it was funny because I'm in the zoom meetings saying gee for all you who told me that why are you struggling with re-entry are you struggling with re-entry all of a sudden a shared community on which to to build support for each other but imagine what it was like for chosu back at the peak of mass at the buildup of mass incarceration for him to come home during this time of just say no and the drug war and everything else that was going on and people just expecting him to do fine what's wrong you're out of prison why are you feeling pressure and even when I came home no other lifers were home and talking to my friends inside they were didn't understand and they're like man you're not in prison anymore why are you why are you struggling why do you feel stressed so it's um just finding the space to help people build community finding support where they need it not feeling the rejection from especially in the Asian Community because of the fact that we feel this cultural shame I mean the same people who say you know the model minority myth but yet you come across someone who's formally incarcerated and then suddenly it's all like oh yeah don't talk to him because he makes us look bad so then are you against a model minority myth or or aren't you you know so it's it's this double-edged sword that's really it's so frustrating and um but it's just it doesn't shouldn't be just the organizations that do the work you know it should be all of us because we are one Community you know the whole um the um Confucian way of thinking you know we're cogs in the machine you know but yet if you hide the cogs that are cracked you know the machine's still going to break that just because everything looks shiny doesn't mean it's gonna work well so we should we as a community should really work together to find and help people coming home trying to rebuild their lives find acceptance you know find community and find help and support because it's it you're you're only hurting yourself if you're rejecting these parts of our community thank you and on that note of looking forward and working towards the future we want to build I want to raise a question that um an environmental justice Advocate that I really look up to Leah Thomas um poses to her panelists it's because in these activist spaces we're talking about deconstructing dismantling so many systems um which is so important and we should be able to understand those systems in order to take them down but it's also important to think about the world that we wish to live in what world do we want to radically imagine and so as a concluding question I wanted to ask the panelists in your spaces and your spheres in your personal life in any aspect that you would like to share what does a radically imagined future look like I think I already answered that question with my last statement but I want a case with this I get asked a lot you know what does a successful re-entry look like and my answer to that is the success the most successful re-entry is the one you don't hear about because someone was so well integrated back into society that you never even realized what they had gone through um so not everyone coming home wants to be an activist who wants to be this rock star you know clearly Chelsea didn't want to do that and he felt a lot of pressure in dealing with it he just wanted to be a regular person having a regular job and living a quiet life but the pressure that was put upon him was so much that he couldn't deal with it and it sent him back to his old ways so um yeah just help people be regular members of society I'll just add I think you know one of the lines in the film that I think has has always been very resonant and meaningful for for me is is that part where Chelsea is almost sort of uh I mean it's almost like a confessional it's sort of his interview that he does after his accident he talks about the pain that he's been through in his life but um sort of how meeting KW lean through meeting the activists sort of there is this Humanity that was extended towards him and that inspired him to want to sort of grow his humanity and to give that to others and there's just something I mean I think you know there are many different takeaways from the film but in the edit we would sometimes sort of or I would sort of sometimes refer to that as the thesis statement to the film and again there are many messages in this film but like it's just something that really resonated with me because so much sort of of that empathy can come from an understanding of of of pain and can be the root of that and films are often referred to as sort of these machines for empathy and I think you know at least in this example of of the life of Chelsea and all that he went through just um that comes to me and it just sort of makes me want to sort of like use that in in my life and and hope to build towards a world where the systems might reflect an understanding that's built on understanding and and empathy and in a way of connecting in that way in a wave making meaning together in that way because that just sort of seems like that's at the root of any movement of any action to try and push the world in a direction that we all feel is a better Direction I remind like everybody that you know Chelsea Lee actually as he says by his own admission was no angel he was no model minority um even prior to his arrest on wrongful conviction he in fact had a criminal record was was sort of this poor Korean immigrant Street kid um and I think yeah we have to remember that when um people rallied around him he was that person and they still looked upon him at a time when the rest of society was saying you're disposable you know um they were actually saying no you actually are worthy of our time attention love and care you're worthy of a landmark movement and I think that's something I try to remember and I try to personalize and I always encourage everyone like really personalize the message of this film in your own lives you know I hope you allow it to move you maybe it'll change your perspective on certain issues um maybe it'll make you think that there's some issues that you didn't realize were your issues too um you know if it changes the way maybe you think about raising your own children and the principles and values with which you do that how you vote the causes you support um you know that's how I'm also trying to challenge myself whenever I think about the messages of this film when I think of Church's life his life is a reflection of his history and the context he was born during Korean War he carries the uh the birthday of Korean Independence Day that has already struck has stuck in my mind and how much of his life is that of a victim in a way of of of the history of Korea and and the immigration to this country and um yet there is a lot of resilience and strength and love and passion that he had lately I've been thinking a lot about being able to name intergenerational trauma and to be able to really sit with it and reflect on it and I think that only when we could name it not just individually but collectively that there is a compassion that comes out of it that is from a very deep place so the world I would like to see um is where we are allowed and has that have given that opportunity to be able to reflect on who we are and why we are here and be able to tell our story from a point of strength and of that of liberation and then I think we could talk about Collective change that is much deeper than just one cause or one issue so that's the word I would like to see [Applause] I don't know how you can follow follow up with that but what I could what I can't say is that maybe perhaps I'm a bit more pessimistic I I don't I don't see radical change coming anytime soon however I believe that without personal involvement and that's you guys becoming involved it's great sitting here it's great watching these films but if you walk out and do nothing from after today then I I don't consider that a success I think people need to be involved um not that there is a dearth of issues there are tons of issues whatever you want to be involved with but you need to be involved you need to be active you need to speak out for those who can't speak for themselves you need to be involved with organizations like we have here with with with Kern um that I see is um a step towards Brave New World yes um so in an Ideal World you know we could just snap our fingers and get rid of the racism the prejudices that have unfortunately kind of leaked into our institutions um but I think the most important thing is that we're not afraid of systemic change um trying to progress forward but remembering the Grievances of our past um uh his three teacher in high school told me history doesn't repeat itself but it Rhymes I think what he wanted to say is that even if it does seem like the same thing maybe occurring we're in a greater time where we now have more power to prevent the same mistakes from happening so I think as long as we're not closing the door unchanged and making sure that um we're creating these safe spaces for these difficult conversations to occur then I think we're moving in the right direction thank you so much and I feel like just having this conversation with you I was a part of the future that I want to live in um so that concludes our panel discussion and program before you all leave I just want to let you know that this film is screening on PBS's Independent Lens until May 23rd so if you have friends who couldn't make it and wanted to come please share with them it should be available on YouTube and PBS right yeah yes and and on the PBS app uh until actually July 22nd um so please spread the word also if you have any people in your lives who are Korean language speakers uh on YouTube and on the PBS app it is available with Korean subtitles as well so uh so so please let folks know and um if you're interested in uh supporting API rise our website is www.api-rise.org thank you and thank you all for coming on the Saturday night please get home safe and take care