“I think they’ve been really heartened by the response to the film,” James reveals. The film has made the Sungs heroes in the eyes of many viewers, because they refused to knuckle under to a prosecution they felt was unjust, spending $10 million of family money to defend their reputation. I’m just choosing to be thankful for the fact that we made it this far.” So I’m not holding my breath about any of that. I’ve been on the shortlist a number of times in the past and it hasn’t resulted in a nomination. “Whether this turns into a nomination or not, who knows. “It is great to get shortlisted and I’m really thankful for this film to get that distinction because it’s just another way to help it stay in the public view,” James tells Deadline. In December, Abacus made the Oscar documentary shortlist, a feat James also achieved with Life Itself. It debuted on the PBS program Frontlinein September.
“His answer is very revealing in unintended ways.”Ībacus: Small Enough to Jail is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles, a return theatrical engagement for a film whose original run came last summer. It’s like, okay, but not a ‘white’ bank?” James points out.
He says, ‘I don’t think we treated this bank any differently than we would an Indian bank or a South American bank,’ which is a very interesting answer. James interviewed Vance well after the verdict, and learned the Manhattan D.A. In the end, a jury acquitted the bank and its employees of all charges. “I mean, the chain gang alone was an act of tremendous insensitivity and I would say racism, however unintended it might have been… They didn’t seem interested at all in understanding that bias.”
#ABACUS BANK CHINATOWN TRIAL#
“I think Vance and his office were just insensitive to the ways in which this case and bringing it to trial was culturally insensitive,” James asserts. The director sees evidence of racial bias in the handling of Abacus. “Vance paraded these defendants down the hallway in chains,” James states, “for low-level bank fraud.”įrom the get-go some legal observers questioned whether the case amounted to selective prosecution. The film contains news footage of the indicted employees as they were subjected to a kind of ritual humiliation. Nevertheless, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, led by Cyrus Vance Jr., obtained an indictment against the bank and 19 employees, alleging mortgage and securities fraud and conspiracy. They weren’t complicit, they weren’t endorsing it, they weren’t encouraging it at all.” “They thought they were doing all the right things. “They were appalled to see that there were some irregularities going on,” James says of the family. Instead of burying the misconduct, they brought it to the attention of regulators. However, in 2009, by which time daughter Jill had taken over running Abacus from her father, the bank discovered one of its loan officers had been forging information on mortgage applications and sought kickbacks from a borrower. He identified with the character of banker George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life-extending credit to help neighbors prosper-and the bank’s low default rate on loans suggested wise stewardship. Thomas, a Chinese immigrant himself, founded the bank in the 1980s to provide credit to fellow community members who struggled to obtain loans from traditional lenders. The film’s protagonists are Thomas Sung, his wife Hwei Lin and their four daughters-Vera, Jill, Chanterelle and Heather-owners of Abacus. That made me want to venture to New York City and to Chinatown to tell this story.” PBS Distribution “It’s so important to understand where the justice system brought the hammer down versus where they didn’t. “I just thought this was an important story,” James tells Deadline. “Too big to fail turns into small enough to jail.” “If you were going to pick a bank to pick on, a family-owned company wedged between a couple of noodle shops in Chinatown is about as easy a target as you can pick,” author Matt Taibbi observes in the film.
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