In June of 1982, a 27 year-old Chinese American draftsman, Vincent Chin, was celebrating his bachelor party at a Detroit area strip club when he encountered a foreman at Chrysler Motors named Ronald Ebens. According to some witnesses, Ebens mistook Chin for a Japanese man, and hurled ethnic insults, blaming him for the loss of jobs in the then-depressed American auto industry.

By the end of the night Ron Ebens, aided by his stepson Mike Nitz, had bludgeoned Vincent Chin to death with a baseball bat. After Ebens and Nitz pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were each sentenced to three-year probation and $3,000 fine, the Asian American community was outraged. Who Killed Vincent Chin? chronicles the historic campaign for Justice for Vincent Chin spearheaded by his mother Lily, Detroit’s American Citizens for Justice, and a nationwide coalition of activists. Nominated for an Academy Award, Who Killed Vincent Chin? became a landmark in Asian American filmmaking and a classic in US independent cinema.