Far East Deep South (2020)

Earlier this year when I was visiting the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi, I saw a poster for this film and was excited when I got back home to see it is available on Kanopy through my library. Following one California family’s journey as they retrace their ancestors’ lives in the Mississippi Delta, the Museum features prominently in the early parts of the film as the group first begin to gather clues about the family’s presence in the area. Further along, they delve deeper into Chinese American history in the Delta and parts further, bits that often are relegated to only a couple of sentences or left out completely of American history books. Coming across a bit like a home movie made for a specific audience, the documentary still added some more details and a personalized touch to what I had learned in my own visit to the area.