October 11: Come Together Home | Documentary On Portland's Chinese Immigrants @ Backspace | FREE
A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY FINAL JOURNEY HOME
OF PORTLAND'S EARLY CHINESE IMMIGRANTS
PREMIERES OCTOBER 11
Portland, Ore., August 27, 2009 — Come Together Home, a documentary which retraces the final journey of disinterred remains of early Chinese immigrants from Portland to Hong Kong, premieres Sunday, October 11, 2009, at 7 p.m. The premiere will be held at the Someday Lounge on NW 5th Avenue, in Portland's Old Town/Chinatown.
Portlander Ivy Lin directed and produced Come Together Home. "I've always wondered why there is a fenced-off gravel area at the SW corner of Lone Fir Cemetery. Later on, I learned that it was the first Chinese burial site in Portland," says Lin. "I also learned the history of disinterment when the remains were exhumed and shipped back to China for proper reburials. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), for many early Chinese immigrants, that was the only way for them to return home."
About the Documentary
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, via Hong Kong, in two major disinterments: 1928 and 1949.
Sixty years later, director Ivy Lin follows the footsteps of the missing 1949 shipment of remains in an extraordinary journey from Portland to Hong Kong.
About the Director
Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Ivy Lin has been living in the United States since 1989. She moved to Portland from the Midwest in 2002. Ivy works at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy and has been an independent documentary producer since 2000. She is a classical musician by training and a member of Portland Cello Project.
In 2007, Ivy directed and produced Knowing All of You Like I Do, a documentary about the closing and deconstruction of the landmark Portland record store Music Millennium NW.
It premiered at the Reel Music Festival on January 17, 2008.
In 2008, Ivy directed and produced Pig Roast & Tank of Fish, the first-ever documentary about Portland's Chinatown. It premiered September 28, 2008, and was also screened at the 35th Northwest Film & Video Festival on November 15, 2008.
About the Premiere (also a fundraising event for Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery)
Come Together Home
Sunday, October 11, 2009, at 7 p.m.
Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97209
**Free admission, donations welcomed for “Block 14 Memorials Fund”, raised by Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery**
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