Blurring the Color Line follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who owned a neighborhood grocery store in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. By weaving personal family stories with memories from the larger Chinese and Black communities, the documentary unveils a unique connection between the Chinese and Black communities, and opens up uncomfortable but necessary conversations around anti-black racism, and examines the deeply rooted structure of white power and Chinese patriarchy that contributed to this.

Join us for a special screening of Blurring the Color Line, followed by a conversation and Q&A with Crystal Kwok and the National Action Network's Derek Perkinson, about the connected histories of tensions and co-existence between Black and Asian communities, and how the ugly truths about our country’s racial structure can be helpful in bridging the racial divides and finding common ground in the days ahead.

Trailer:

Blurring The Color Line - Trailer from Crystal Kwok on Vimeo.

Speakers

Crystal Kwok is director, producer, and writer for Blurring the Color Line. She is an award-winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and talk show host. She won the audience choice awards at the 2000 Deauville Asian Film Festival for her debut feature length film, The Mistress. She was commissioned by Canal Plus to document A Day in the Life of Jackie Chan as part of the centennial celebration of international directors. She created and produced a bilingual edutainment video series for young children, The Culture Cubs and wrote and has staged several original plays about sensitive women’s issues. As a strong women’s advocate, her talk show, Kwoktalk broke boundaries in Hong Kong with conversations about women and sexuality. Having moved back to American soil after being overseas for a couple of decades, she now embraces issues closer to home -- that of her Asian-American heritage.

Derek A. Perkinson (moderator) is the New York State Field Director and Crisis Director for the National Action Network (NAN). He oversees NAN’s advocacy, policy campaigns and organizing efforts throughout the state of New York, the New York State (NYS) chapters and coordinates national crisis concerns. He was recently apart of the coalition to bring the NYS John R. Lewis Voting Rights law to NYS. He has been awarded leadership awards, citations and proclamations from City Councilmembers, NYS Assemblymembers, and NYS Senators and Congressmembers. NAN Women’s Auxiliary recently named Derek it’s “Man of the Year” award winner in 2022. He is the Vice President of the Black Cannabis Business Alliance, to advocate for social equity and career training. He serves on New York City Community Board 10, which represents Harlem, where he is the Vice Chair for the Personnel Committee, and sits on the Parks and Recreation and Public Safety Committees. He is the 2nd Vice President of the African American Day Parade Breakfast Committee, now in their 20th year, and he is a former Advisory Board member of S.T.O.P. (Surveillance Technology Oversight Project), which calls for transparency from law enforcement when storing and amassing facial recognition data and the usage of this data.