“We see the power of knowing this case,” said journalist-turned-director Julie Ha about her first documentary film, ‘Free Chol Soo Lee’ ahead of its release in Korea later this month. The second-generation Korean American recently traveled to Seoul for special pre-screenings, one of which took place before an audience of teenage students, parents, and teachers at Banpo-based international school Dulwich College Seoul (DCSL).
The film chronicles the story of Chol Soo Lee. Born in Korea, he was a self-described “young street punk” barely into his 20s when he was wrongfully convicted of a 1973 San Francisco murder. The actual killer was known to many in the local Chinatown community and didn’t look anything like Lee, even at a glance. For instance, he was several inches taller and didn’t have the facial hair that distinguished Lee at the time. ‘Free Chol Soo Lee’ presents a damning case against the institutionalized racism that allowed a Korean immigrant to be sentenced to life in prison for being Asian in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yet, that is not the whole story. From his birth into poverty to becoming the symbol of an unprecedented grassroots community movement, Chol Soo Lee’s life is a meditation on the impact of circumstances – both inside and outside of our control. As well as being a blatant case of racial discrimination, ‘Free Chol Soo Lee’ prompts us to question the nature of freedom, both physical and psychological. It is also a call to action for social justice.
After viewing the film, DCSL students enjoyed a rare opportunity to engage in a Q&A session with Ha and Academy Award-nominated producer Su Kim in the school’s auditorium. That conversation offered a series of insights into the creation of ‘Free Chol Soo Lee’ along with Ha and Kim’s hopes for its legacy.
“The heartbreaking story of his unfortunate downfall, even after the ultimate freedom from his prolonged incarceration, left us all in utter shock,” said Kunho, a Dulwich student. “We were very touched by how the Korean community passionately fought together to free the innocent prisoner.”
From inception to Sundance
The story might have started with Chol Soo Lee, but the film began with Julie Ha. Stepping into the unknown as a debut filmmaker, she felt a “generational responsibility” to bring to the screen a story that she had discovered from her mentor, legendary Korean American journalist K.W. Lee (no relation to Chol Soo Lee).
“I learned about this case when I was 18 years old and it changed my whole world,” said Ha on the stage of the school’s auditorium. “It made me want to become a journalist and tell stories of my community so we could be fully humanized.”
Years later, Ha realized that Chol Soo Lee had been forgotten. She sensed an urge to make a film about the social justice movement that he inspired and K.W. Lee helped to lead. It was a landmark cause that had united an entire community of Asian Americans from church-going grandmothers to college student activists.
Challenges of debut filmmaking
The film took six years to make from initial development to completion before its global premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. – a period that clashed head-on with the pandemic.
“There were so, so many (challenges),” Ha reflected. “It was a complicated story to tell, with so many legal proceedings and trials, a movement, and a very complex man at the center of it.” She teamed up with fellow journalist and former collaborator Eugene Yi. Crucially, the co-directors were able to engage the support of a stellar production team, including Su Kim, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer, Jean Tsien, who’s also an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning editor and producer, and Sona Jo, an award-winning producer in Korea.
“There are not that many Korean American producers working in non-fiction films, so I thought I’ve got to do this,” Kim recalled. While she had not heard of Chol Soo Lee, her mother was aware – it turned out she had read about the case in Korean newspapers after they first immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s.
The film aired on PBS in the U.S., where it also played in theaters nationwide. The original movement’s community supplied an abundance of astounding Chol Soo Lee footage from decades earlier. They pieced this together to “get as close to his truth as possible,” as Ha puts it, while also resurrecting Lee’s own words (he wrote an autobiography) through the voice of a narrator, Sebastian Yoon. As a formerly incarcerated Korean American himself who happened to share some of Lee’s innate friendliness and mannerisms, Yoon empathized with the story and helped to write some scenes for the film.
“Personalize” the story
The documentary evoked questions around human rights and civil rights, which are aligned with DCSL’s core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the school’s mission to inspire students to grow as global citizens who make a positive difference in the world.
“This film touched us all, but it really gave our students the chance to consider how they might positively impact the world around them. We are also so thankful that Julie and Su took the time to speak to our students. We were all inspired by their exceptional achievement as filmmakers and their determination to follow their convictions,” said DCSL Head of College Guðmundur Hegner Jónsson.
The filmmakers initially saw Americans as their main target audience – a feeling that only grew due to the spike in anti-Asian violence in the U.S. since COVID-19 and a subsequent need to raise awareness around the issues of civil and human rights – but they have found an even wider audience, with Korea next on the list.
“It has really resonated with people all over the world,” said Kim. “We agreed that we would love for this film to go back to Korea and it was really important to us that a Korean audience would accept the film as a Korean story.”
In the meantime, Ha had some words of advice for aspiring filmmakers. She encouraged students to “personalize” the story. “Allow the feeling you get after watching this film to move you and maybe open your hearts and minds to who the other Chol Soo Lees are in society or at school who might need your help, compassion, and empathy today,” she said. This is the power that changed the lives of the original movement’s college students back in the 1970s, many of whom dedicated their careers to social justice by becoming lawyers and leaders of non-profit agencies supporting young people.
‘Free Chol Soo Lee’ opens in Korean theaters on October 18.