Oscar nominations - the Chinatown bank saga behind Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, up for best documentary
Racism and political gain were the motives, as the Sung family see it, for singling out Abacus Federal Savings Bank for trial over the subprime mortgage crisis, a case that’s the subject of a documentary vying for an Academy Award next month
Since its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last September, the documentary Abacus: Small Enough to Jail has been screened at more than 30 film festivals around the world and picked up a string of awards. On Tuesday it was shortlisted for a best documentary Oscar. Yet audiences continue to be shocked by the injustices meted out on a small bank serving the Chinese community in New York’s Chinatown.
Events captured in the documentary take place four years after trouble in the US subprime mortgage market led to a full-blown banking crisis. Massive bailouts ensued to prevent a total collapse of the global financial system, causing the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Despite howls for the Wall Street bankers, traders and executives whose dishonest deeds triggered the 2008 crisis to be held accountable, no one was brought to justice. Then the system found a victim.
The subsequent trial in 2015 was chronicled by filmmaker Steve James. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail will be shown on November 16 at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, followed by a Skype chat with Abacus founder Thomas Sung and his daughter Vera, a director of the bank.
Nine top banks sued by Fannie Mae over Libor fixing
“A lot of people don’t know the ending of the story. So when the jury goes into deliberation, you can feel a palpable anxiety. Audience members have told me they are on the edge of their seats not knowing what’s going to happen,” says James via Skype from Los Angeles.