The story of the racially charged murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin in 1982 and how his death spurred the creation of a distinct Asian American community in Detroit, Mich. will be told through a film tonight.
The film “Vincent Who” will be shown today at 7 p.m. in the Sarratt Cinema as part of the International Lens Series.
Writer and producer of the film, Curtis Chin, no relation to Vincent, though he said he grew up with Vincent as a child, will lead a discussion following the screening.
Chin, who originally worked in television, said he decided to take a couple years off to pursue this film. It took a year to make and has visited about 110 colleges to screen and talk about the film.
He said being Asian American helped him create this film about the Asian American community in the 1980s. He said he hopes audience members learn some history and discuss social justice issues.
“It’s really learning about history as a way of moving forward,” he said. “The Vincent Chin case was a tragic murder, but there were lots of lessons learned from it that we can take to build and move forward.”
