Screening-Indie Lens Pop Up: Free Chol Soo Lee

The rollercoaster life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of murder.

Credit: Independent Lens

The rollercoaster life story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted of murder.

Join WXXI for a special screening and discussion of Free Chol Soo Lee.  Sentenced to life for a 1973 San Francisco murder, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was set free after a pan-Asian solidarity movement, which included Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Americans, helped to overturn his conviction. After 10 years of fighting for his life inside California state prisons, Lee found himself in a new fight to rise to the expectations of the people who believed in him.

Indie Lens Pop Up presents Free Chol Soo Lee
Monday, March 27 at 6:30-8:30 p.m. 
The Little Theatre, Theatre 5
240 East Avenue, Rochester, NY

A discussion will follow the screening with Moderator: Christina Lee,  Global Education Coordinator at Monroe Community College and panelist: Shermond Reid, Interim Executive Director from the Judicial Process Commission

Christina Lee is the global education coordinator at Monroe Community College, an adjunct professor of cultural anthropology and is currently a doctoral student at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester.  She sits on several boards in the community including the Asian Pacific Islander American Association of Rochester and the community advisory board for WXXI/The Little/City.

Shermond D. Reid, founder of Daughters in Transition, currently serves as Interim Executive Director at JPC. It was during her incarceration that Shermond reconnected with herself and recovery began. After release from prison in 2000, Shermond found her purpose to fulfil the passion she identified with to help other women get out of some of the same pitfalls that encumbered her.

She was led to Judicial Process Commission in 2006, as a volunteer mentor. During her mentorship there, she went on to secure a seat on the JPC Board of Directors. Then in, 2020, she became a JPC Board, Vice President. In January 2023, after the retirement of JPC, former Executive Director, she voluntarily resigned her board seat to assume the role as JPC, Interim Executive Director.

Watch the Trailer: 

Report About the Documentary from Amanpour and Company, PBS

More About the Film: PBS Independent Lens Website: Free Chol Soo Lee

About Indie Lens Pop-Up
Indie Lens Pop-Up is a neighborhood series that brings people together—virtually and in-person—for film screenings and community-driven conversations. Featuring documentaries seen on PBS's INDEPENDENT LENS, Indie Lens Pop-Up draws local residents, leaders, and organizations together to discuss what matters most, from newsworthy topics, to family and community relationships. Make friends, share stories, and join the conversation. For more information, visit pbs.org/independentlens/indie-lens-pop-up