Free Chol Soo Lee

Director: Julie Ha, Eugene Yi | USA | 2021 | 86 mins | Documentary

This screening has been programmed in partnership with the Eastbourne Film Society. The screening on Saturday 18 February will include an introduction by Mansel Stimpson, Chair of EFS.

Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s intelligent, insightful and vital documentary explores systemic racism within the American criminal justice system via the extraordinary story of one man. 

In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is convicted of a Chinatown gang murder after cursory racial profiling. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting Soo Lee’s hopes of acquittal and inspiring an unprecedented social justice movement that spanned generations.

At a moment when the Asian diaspora is experiencing a surge in racist violence following the pandemic, this extraordinarily moving documentary feels especially timely, a way of entering and understanding the long history of discrimination faced by this international community. Exploring Soo Lee’s complex life after being freed, as well as his time in prison, Free Chol Soo Lee is a powerful indictment of systemic racism and the criminal justice system, and the stunning latest in a series of US films and TV series placing a contemporary lens on historic miscarriages of justice and bringing them back into the light.

Refund Policy: Please be aware all tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable to another event. If you are unable to make an event, tickets can be passed to someone else but the original booker's details will remain in our system.

Access Information: Blue badge parking is available alongside the plaza to the front of Towner, along with drop off bays (max 30mins waiting). Further blue badge spaces available in College Rd Car Park. The Cinema is on the ground floor and the front row of seats are on level ground.  All other seats are raked, with stairs & handrail. There is an induction loop. If you have any specific access requirements please get in touch with us on [email protected] or 01323 434670.