| Who Killed Vincent Chin? | |
| Director: | Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña |
| Producer: | Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña[1] |
| Cinematography: | Kyle Kibbe |
| Editing: | Holly Fisher |
| Studio: | Film News Now Foundation and WTVS |
| Distributor: | Filmakers Library |
| Runtime: | 87 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English Cantonese |
Who Killed Vincent Chin? is a 1987 American documentary film produced and directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña that recounts the murder of Vincent Chin. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[2] It was later broadcast as part of the PBS series POV.[3]
In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4]
On a summer night in Detroit in 1982 (during a time of anti-Asian sentiment due to Japan being blamed for America's decline in the auto industry),[5] two white autoworkers fatally beat Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese engineer, with a baseball bat.[6] The film tracks the incident from the initial eye-witness accounts through the trial and its repercussions for the families involved, and the American justice system at large.[7] After an outcry from the Asian American community, led by Vincent's mother Lily Chin, the case becomes a civil rights Supreme Court case. The case ends with tried killer Ronald Ebens' being let go with a suspended sentence and a small fine.[8]