Christine Choy, a trailblazer for Asian-Americans in independent film and whose documentary on the fatal beating of Vincent Chin was nominated for an Academy Award, has died. She was 73.
Choy died on Sunday, according to a statement from JT Takagi, executive director of Third World Newsreel, a filmmaking collective Choy helped establish in the 1970s. No cause of death was given.
“She was a prolific filmmaker who made significant films that helped form our Asian-American and American film history,” Takagi said on the organisation’s website.
Chin, a Chinese-American who grew up in Detroit, was celebrating his stag night in 1982 when two white car workers attacked him. At that time, Japanese car companies were being blamed for job losses in the US vehicle manufacturing industry.
The attackers were motivated by their assumption Chin was Japanese. His death – along with the lack of prison time for the two assailants – is considered a galvanising moment for Asian-Americans fighting anti-Asian hate.
Renee Tajima-Pena, co-director of Who Killed Vincent Chin?, met Choy around 1980 through Third World Newsreel. They decided to collaborate on a documentary a year after Chin’s death after seeing how little coverage it received.