Aldo Velasco

A damning exposé of an unjust judicial system, Free Chol Soo Lee revisits a wrongful conviction thrust upon a Korean immigrant in 1970s San Francisco. Highlighting the radical power of community activism, this vital solidarity call also reveals the lifelong scars that incarceration leaves behind.

Winner of two prizes at Sundance, this tense genre hybrid folds heist and prison-escape tropes into its nonfiction carapace to explore a harrowing chapter in America’s ongoing maltreatment of immigrants. Merging real footage with reenactments, the film makes for bold and controversial storytelling.