Come Together Home, a new documentary by Ivy Lin, retraces the final journey of disinterred remains of early Chinese immigrants from Portland to Hong Kong. The world premiere screening is this Sunday, October 11 at the Someday Lounge in Portland's Old Town/Chinatown. Here are some details:
Come Together HomeDue the Chinese Exclusion Act, for many early Chinese immigrants, getting one's remains exhumed and shipped was apparently the only way for them to return home. Here's an article on director Ivy Lin and the story behind the film: Portland filmmaker traces remains of Portland railroad workers back to China. You can watch the trailer for Come Together Home here.
A documentary by Ivy Lin
Watch the trailer here.
Synopsis
The first wave of Chinese immigrants started to arrive in Portland in 1850. Most of the Chinese immigrants worked as railroad workers, loggers, and cannery workers, and helped to build the city of Portland and the state of Oregon.
Block 14 in Lone Fir Cemetery, the first Chinese burial ground in Portland -- and site of as many as 1,500 burials -- now stands as a fenced off void of gravel after most of the remains were exhumed and shipped back to China in 1928 & 1949.
Sixty years later, Director Ivy Lin follows the footsteps of the missing 1949 shipment in an extraordinary journey from Portland to Hong Kong.
World Premiere
October 11th, Sunday, 7pm
Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., Portland, OR 97209
*Q&A with the director following the screening
**Free admission, donations welcomed for "Block 14 Memorials Fund," raised by Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery.**
