Production company MUBI has acquired Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s documentary “Free Chol Soo Lee” that premiered last week at Sundance, the company said in a release.
The film has been acquired for North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, German, Austria, Italy and Turkey and will release theatrically in 2022 in the U.S., with plans for other regions coming later.
The documentary is about a movement in the 1970s in San Francisco, where a 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee gets racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. Lee is sentenced to life and fights to survive until a journalist takes up his case and ignites a social justice movement in the Asian American community. The film creates a portrait of the man at the center of this movement five decades later.
“Our team is overjoyed to be partnering with MUBI, who embrace and share our goal of making sure Free Chol Soo Lee finds a large and diverse audience,” Ha and Yi said in their statement. “They understand the art of the film and the heart of the story: the love between a poor Korean immigrant street kid and the strangers who embraced him, and deemed him worthy. With MUBI’s partnership, we hope to ensure a long life for the film and an enduring legacy for Chol Soo Lee and the landmark movement he inspired.”
The film is made by Oscar-nominated producer Su Kim and Emmy-winner Jean Tsien and Sona Jo. The deal with MUBI was negotiated by Submarine Entertainment.