(Photo Courtesy of IMDb) “A cover image for Joseph Juhn’s ‘Chosen'”
Jordan Harrington
Connector Editor
Since the end of September, the lawyer-turned-filmmaker Joseph Juhn has been touring the United States providing a screening of his upcoming documentary “Chosen”. The documentary follows five different Korean Americans and their political run for Congress in 2020. Come October 19, UMass Lowell was honored to present a screening of “Chosen” and host a Q&A panel with Juhn afterward.
Juhn’s Chosen focuses mostly on the grassroots progressive democratic campaign of second-generation Korean-American David Kim. It also presents multiple other Korean Americans running for Congress such as Young Kim, Michelle Steel, Andy Kim, and Marilyn Strickland. Everyone has a different background giving them unique perspectives and experiences that Juhn closely follows to present to the audience.
The documentary presented the vast experiences of Korean-Americans, including intergenerational trauma, historical moments like the L.A. riots, Korean identity and more.
“I wanted to highlight the many layers of complexity within our community that we do not talk about. We need to, from time to time, look internally and look at what topics of discomfort are for us.” said Juhn during the Q&A panel.
UMass Lowell is “Chosen”’s 18th destination thus far in its U.S. tour and was its first done online through a Zoom seminar.
Sue Kim, who is a professor of English at UMass Lowell, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies for Fine Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences and co-director for the Center for Asian American Studies, says, “The Center for Asian American Studies has historically focused on southeast Asian American studies, but we have several faculties interested in Korean American studies and this is one of the first events we have held. For me it was great to see community and personally. It was interesting because I am Korean American, and I grew up in a Korean American community.”
During the Q&A panel run by both Kim and Claire Lee, an associate professor for the School of Criminology and Justice Studies here at UMass Lowell, audience members were able to ask questions that Joseph Juhn would answer and give his thoughts on. The discussion echoed thoughts on the generational differences of Korean-Americans, political advocacy, history, representation, desired narratives and more. The screening making its destination at UMass Lowell is in part thanks to Claire Lee who knew Joseph Juhn.
For many, representation is something that is increasingly more important. On that, Sue Kim says, “Representation is so important. If you grow up not seeing representations of yourself, whether it is representations of Asian, queer, trans, or working class, if you do not see representations of yourself in leadership positions, as teachers, as political leaders, it cognitively does not seem like a possibility for you.” She also notes the importance of who is in control and in power for those positions of representation.
A recording of the Q&A panel will be able to be viewed through the Center for Asian American Studies website. The documentary itself which ran for around eighty minutes is set to screen in multiple other locations around the U.S. pending its theatrical release in South Korea on November 3, 2022.
On the importance of documentaries and the work of people like Joseph Juhn, Kim says, “I think [they’re] incredibly important. I am a universalist in terms of medium, I think that we should use all media that people resonate with which includes all sorts of things like social media and TikTok. Documentaries especially are a wonderful way to understand history and they are a lot more visceral than books sometimes.”
