
Independent Lens
Down a Dark Stairwell
A Chinese American cop shoots and kills an innocent black man; suddenly two marginalized communities must navigate an uneven criminal justice system together.
The rollercoaster life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of murder who inspired a movement to free him.
Julie Ha has worked as a storyteller for more than 20 years, with a specialized focus on Asian American stories. She formerly served as the editor-in-chief of KoreAm Journal, an award-winning national Korean American magazine. She has also worked as a staff writer for the Hartford Courant in Connecticut and the Rafu Shimpo, a Los Angeles-based Japanese… Show more
Eugene Yi is a filmmaker, editor and journalist. His film editing work has premiered at Berlin International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, TriBeCa Film Festival, and others. Selected titles include the Emmy-nominated Farewell Ferris Wheel, a documentary about guestworkers in the carnival industry, and Out of My Hand, a fiction-documentary… Show more
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Sentenced to death for a lurid 1973 San Francisco murder, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was set free after a pan-Asian solidarity movement of Korean, Japanese and Chinese Americans helped to overturn his conviction. After ten years of fighting for his life inside San Quentin, Lee found himself in a new fight to rise to the expectations of the people who believed in him. On his journey from an inspiring icon to a drug-addicted swing-shift janitor, Chol Soo Lee personifies the ravages of America’s prison industrial complex.
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