A restored print of the 1987 crime documentary “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” will be screened at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
The Oscar-nominated film explores the life of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man who was beaten to death during a racially motivated attack in Detroit on June 19, 1982.
The 27-year-old was celebrating his bachelor party in Highland Park when he encountered auto workers Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz. The two men, who blamed Japan for the downturn in the U.S. auto industry at the time, directed their anger at Chin and split his skull open outside a McDonald’s.
Although Ebens and Nitz were arrested, neither of them spent time in prison.
“Who Killed Vincent Chin?” documents the outrage over the sentencing and the cultural context in which the murder occurred.
In association with the Museum of Chinese in America, the documentary was restored by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation.
Last year, the film was also restored and preserved for history by the National Film Registry. It was inducted into the National Film Registry (NFR) of the Library of Congress “to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America’s film heritage.”
The Academy Museum on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles will premiere the film on Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Co-directors Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña will reportedly be speaking at the screening.
Featured Image via Academy Museum, Detroit Public TV
