7:03 p.m., September 16, 2021, modified at 7:03 p.m., September 16, 2021
Audience award at the Deauville American Film Festival, “Blue Bayou” deals with the scandal of children adopted in Asia and threatened with being deported, once adulthood, from the United States. Director, screenwriter and actor, Justin Chon describes the genesis of this heartbreaking melodrama.
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At the last American Film Festival in Deauville, a film overwhelmed the public to the point that it awarded it its prize: Blue Bayou, by Justin Chon. Director, screenwriter and actor, he explains in this heartbreaking and resolutely political melodrama how thousands of adopted children in Asia discover as adults that they were not naturalized when they arrived in the United States and thus risk the ‘expulsion. For the JDD, he tells the genesis of this film and his research to make known to the general public this “scandal ignored”.
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“This is not my personal story,” he told JDD. “Growing up, I befriended several people from South Korea who were adopted by American couples as children. They told me that members of their community, aged 30, 40 or 50, were being deported because they had not obtained the citizenship of their host country. , unfair and shocking.
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Why was this scandal passed over in silence?
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I read a lot of articles and I compiled the testimonies, wondering: why this scandal was ignored? We are only talking about immigration from Mexico. It has nothing to do with these people who are sent back to Asia did not ask to come to the United States. I wanted the general public to know at all costs, so what better way to do that than by directing a movie for the cinema? I investigated and found that there were flaws in the administration, at the time we did not systematically or correctly fill out the papers in order to regularize the situation of these orphans as quickly as possible. It is enough if they have a criminal record for the authorities to use it as a pretext to drive them back to the border, when they should take care of their nationals and of course allow them to stay.
Most of the time, when there is a trial (provided the defendant can pay a lawyer), failure is guaranteed. Particularly in the southern states, where racism is omnipresent. When you have slanted eyes in New Orleans, you don’t fit in with the rest of the landscape!
My parents arrived from South Korea in 1979, they took a long time to integrate. So I am part of the second generation, born in Orange County, California, and now living in Honolulu. Like Threaten (2020), by Lee Isaac Chung, I relate their experience, hoping to provoke reflection and find solutions. “
Blue Bayou ***
From and with Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander. 1h58.
In Louisiana, an American citizen of South Korean origin learns that he is not in good standing… Director, screenwriter and actor, Justin Chon denounces an unknown scandal: thousands of children adopted in Asia discover adults that they are not were not naturalized upon arrival in the United States and are threatened with deportation! This eminently political film evokes subjects such as roots, abuse, racism and the politics of a country that turns in on itself. A melodrama with an impressionistic staging, sometimes a bit demonstrative, but overflowing with humanity. S.B.
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