MOCA CINEMA – Blurring the Color Line
February 22, 2026, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
General Admission: $10 (Museum Admission included)
Where did Chinese Americans sit on the bus during Jim Crow? Blurring the Color Line challenges the rigid Black-and-white narratives of segregation by centering the often-overlooked experiences of Asian Americans in the American South. While much has been written about the systemic oppression of Black communities under Jim Crow, far less attention has been given to the social positioning of Asian Americans during this period.
The Museum of Chinese in America is honored to host a screening of the documentary Blurring the Color Line, continuing vital conversations about the historical and contemporary relationships between Asian American and Black communities. At a moment when “Sinners” is competing for the Academy Awards and drawing renewed attention to Chinese American life in the South, this documentary offers timely historical context and deeper insight into the lived experiences of Chinese communities under Jim Crow. By tracing a shared yet complicated past, the film invites critical reflection on today’s racial tensions and the legacies that connect them.
Inspired by filmmaker Crystal Kwok’s grandmother’s memories of her family’s grocery store in Augusta, Georgia, the film draws from lived experiences within a Black neighborhood to reveal the contradictions and inequities of a deeply racialized system.
A post-screening talkback with filmmaker Crystal Kwok and additional panelists will follow.
ABOUT Crystal Kwok
Crystal Kwok is an award winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and controversial talk show host. Her debut feature film, The Mistress (1999), won the Audience Choice Awards at the Deauville Asiatic Film Festival. Her feature documentary Blurring the Color Line (2022) streamed nationally on PBS under America ReFramed in 2023. It won multiple awards including Best Documentary at the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival, Courage Award at DisOrient Film Festival, and the Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award at the Harlem International Film Festival. Kwok also holds a PhD in Performance Studies and an advanced Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She straddles the line between creative production and academic work. She was a visiting scholar at Duke Kunshan University and currently a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong in the Gender Studies, and History Department. Her work is committed to amplifying voices of women and marginal communities.
ABOUT Panelists
Rockwell (“Rocky”) Chin is a retired government civil rights attorney & is currently an appointed member of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Rocky served in attorney and executive positions at the City and State human rights/civil rights agencies for many years. He is the founder of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), the Asian American Law Fund of New York, a Founding Advisor of the Vincent Chin Institute, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Sonia & Celina Sotomayor Judicial Internship Program. Rocky was an early instructor of Asian American Studies, team-teaching one of the first courses on “Asians and the Law” in 1973. He has written articles published in Amerasia Journal, Bridge Magazine, the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession and CUNY Forum/Asian American/Asian Research Institute. He recently contributed one of the essays in Corky Lee’s Asian America. Rocky has lived on the Lower East Side for over 45 years with his wife, May Ying Chen. They have four grandchildren. Rocky is a proud supporter of MoCA.