BLURRING THE COLOR LINE
Film poster for "Blurring the Color Line" with black and white image of black man and asian girl.
BLURRING THE COLOR LINE
Film poster for "Blurring the Color Line" with black and white image of black man and asian girl.
Stories of Chinese families in the Black South during Jim Crow disrupt the black and white narrative of America’s racial history

BLURRING THE COLOR LINE

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WATCH ON DOCUSEEK

BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD - Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival | Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award | Harlem International Film Festival

Chinese American & African American History • Race Relations • American South • Afro-Asians • Women's Stories

Date of Completion: 2022 | Run Time: 77 & 53 minutes​​ | Language: English with Chinese subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Crystal Kwok | Executive Producers: Daniel Wu, Lisa Ling & W. Kamau Bell | Editor: Kyung Lee | Producer: Gustin Smith

What did it mean to be Chinese in Black spaces during segregation? Follow director Crystal Kwok’s personal journey of discovery, as she digs into the ways her grandmother’s family navigated life as grocery store owners in the black neighborhood of Augusta, Georgia. Her film BLURRING THE COLOR LINE is a personal family story told alongside memories from the larger Chinese and Black communities in Georgia, which opens up uncomfortable but necessary conversations around anti-Black racism and the deeply rooted structure of white power and Chinese patriarchy. Which fountain did the Chinese drink from? Where did they sit on the bus? An important entrance into all of our connected histories which many of us never knew or dared speak about.

Texas Southern University | Dr. Karen Kossie-Chervnyshev, Professor of History
"Kwok chose the term "Blurring" to highlight the Chinese American experience -- one centered in the middle of blackness and whiteness --a distinction captured in one of the questions posed in the film, 'Where did Asians sit on the bus?'"

University of Hong Kong | Dr. Elizabeth LaCouture, Professor of Gender Studies
"Racialized discrimination does not fit into boxes. It is shifting and blurry. That is where the film ends up and that is what Crystal discussed so beautifully."

AWARDS
Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award | Harlem International Film Festival
Courage Award | DisOrient Film Festival
Best Documentary Award |
 JXN Film Festival
Best Documentary Award | Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest
Best Documentary, Virtual Audience Award Runner Up | Denton Black Film Festival
Best Documentary Award | Fort Smith International Film Festival

Dr. Crystal Kwok holds a PhD in Performance Studies and Women's Studies Advanced Graduate Certificate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is an award winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and provocative talk show host. Her debut feature film, The Mistress, won the Audience Choice Awards at the Deauville Asiatic Film Festival and her Cable TV and RTHK radio talk show pushed boundaries in Hong Kong, addressing socially sensitive topics around sexuality and the body. She has taught courses in Women and Film/Media at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Blurring the Color Line is part of her dissertation, examining race-relations between the Chinese and Black communities. This documentary has already won multiple awards including Best Documentary at the Georgia Film Festival, Courage Award at DisOrient Film Festival, and the Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award at the Harlem International Film Festival. Through both creative and scholarly work, Crystal is committed to breaking boundaries and amplifying voices of women and marginal communities.