In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee

plays with Memory Of Forgotten War

(USA, 2010, 60 mins, Video)

World Premiere

Producers: Borshay Liem, Charlotte Lagarde
Writer: Deann Borshay Liem
Cinematographer: Michael Chin
Editor: Vivien Hillgrove
Sound: JT Takagi

In Person: Deann Borshay Liem, Charlotte Lagarde

In 1966, an American couple adopted a Korean “orphan” named Cha Jung Hee, and renamed her Deann Borshay. No one questioned the authenticity of the identity papers from the adoption agency, nor did anyone heed the little girl’s pleas that her family was actually still alive. As time went on, Jung Hee/Deann happily integrated into the new family. There was just one important discrepancy–she was never Cha Jung Hee. A moving and complex follow-up to the acclaimed FIRST PERSON PLURAL (SFIAAFF ’99), Borshay’s IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE takes us on a remarkable journey through an individual’s “mislabeled” past and a nation’s scarred history. When Borshay was first taken to Sun Duck Orphanage, she was given the identity of another girl and told to keep it a secret. Over 50 years later, Borshay returns to Korea to find the real Cha Jung Hee: she visits the orphanage, appears on a television show, and even cold calls a list of some hundred Cha Jung Hees. Throughout, the artifacts of her identity are placed into question even as she strives to piece together a family history she can scarcely corroborate. Partially a personal investigation, IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE also traverses the changing face of Korea’s cultural landscape, inextricably linking this history with Borshay’s compelling narrative.

-- Christine Kwon

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