Three films (Far East Deep South, Ultimate Citizens, and Wildcat) are available to be streamed on demand through Vimeo with a talkback link - any time from November 7-14.
Far East Deep South
Documentary - 76 minutes
Directed & Written by Larissa Lam
Description: When a Chinese American family travels from California to Mississippi to visit the grave of their ancestors, they stumble upon surprising revelations. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians, who shed light on the racially complex history of the early Chinese in the segregated South. Their emotional journey also leads them to discover how the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 impacted their family and how deep their roots run in America.
Talkback with Director and Writer Larissa Lam
Ultimate Citizens
Documentary - 52 minutes
Directed by Francine Strickwerda
Description: Jamshid is an Iranian who came to study in 1970’s America, and due to the Revolution, never went “home.” As a guidance counselor in Seattle Public Schools, his best work takes place with frisbee in hand on the playing field with “his kids,” the children of refugees and immigrants.
Sponsored by Fairleigh Dickinson University; Teaneck Public Schools
Talkback with Director Francine Strickwerda; Jamshid Khajavi, subject of film
Wildcat
Biography / Drama - 103 Minutes
Directed by Ethan Hawke
Description: As director and co-writer, Hawke tells the story of Flannery O’Connor by imagining that her work and her life were inextricably intertwined, with one constantly influencing the other. The mid-century American writer had a flair for the darkly dramatic, exploring humanity’s grotesque and profane elements in ways that seemed shocking and inappropriate for a proper young lady from the South.
Sponsored by Wendy Wineburgh Dessanti; Welchert Realtors