![]() ![]() His career was well underway and he was doing fine. When Thomas Sung founded Abacus in the mid-1980s, he was already a successful lawyer. How does the role of a small community bank like Abacus differ from, say, Wells Fargo? With the help of the Sungs and Don Lee, we were able to ingratiate ourselves a little.īut ultimately Abacus is not a film that’s about Chinatown in New York as much as it is about the Sungs, the significance of their bank within that community, and their legal struggle. I knew, in general, that Chinatown was a much more closed community. I went in without a lot of expectations of what we’d find. He also was very close to the Sungs, felt very strongly about their case, and was supportive of the film we were making. ![]() He’s someone else who is highly regarded and highly respected within the community. The family's high status, particularly the patriarch and founder Thomas, gave us access that we otherwise would not have had.Īnother key was Don Lee, the community activist who’s featured in the film. The only way I felt we could tell this story was through the Sung family, and, by extension, their relationships within that community. I went into this project largely as an “immigrant” of the Chinese-American community. Were they any difficulties in dealing with this tight-knit community of Chinatown? Was it challenging dealing with cultural differences and nuances you weren’t aware of? I feel like that’s when who they are is most revealed. ![]() I often find myself telling stories of people at crucial junctures in their lives, and I really enjoy being with people when they’re facing obstacles or big choices. In this case, we follow the family as they go through this trial, so you're there with them as they experience this. In the case of Life Itself, we followed Roger for what turned out to be the last four months of his life, when he dealt with the return of his cancer. In Life Itself and in Abacus, even though they’re very different from Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, there is a thread that connects them: I very much like to follow people. How does Abacus relate to your previous work? Is there a thread that unites your projects? Or is it simply that you become interested in something and then decide to pursue it? You’ve done so many different types of films, from Life Itself, about a film critic, to of course Hoop Dreams. And based on talking to him about it, I agreed. So we went to New York and started shooting for several days as the trial was getting underway. He’s the one who told me about it and said he thought it was an important story. So he knew about the pending case even though it was barely being reported in the mainstream media. ![]() Mark, as it turns out, had been friends with the Sung family for 10 years by the time we started the film. I first heard about it from the producer Mark Mitten, who’s a friend and colleague from past work. What attracted you to the story of Abacus bank? The interview has been condensed and edited lightly for clarity. Asia Society recently caught up with James to discuss why Abacus' story is so important - and what we can learn from the bank's experience. More recently, he was the director of Life Itself, an adaptation of film critic Roger Ebert's autobiography. James first rose to national prominence in 1994 after the release of Hoop Dreams, widely considered one of the best documentaries ever. In addition to portraying the plight of the Sung family, the film also examines the roles of banks like Abacus in the lives of immigrant populations for whom major financial institutions are often unsuited to serve. In his new film Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, the acclaimed filmmaker Steve James follows the Sung family as they worked to exonerate themselves from charges filed by Cyrus Vance Jr., the ambitious Manhattan district attorney. On September 6, Steve James and Thomas Sung will appear at Asia Society for a screening of Abacus: Small Enough to Jail followed by a discussion. ![]()
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