‘The Six’: Stories of Chinese Titanic survivors premieres at VIFF
Posted October 6, 2021 3:31 pm.
Last Updated October 6, 2021 3:52 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Of the eight Chinese passengers on board the Titanic, which sank in 1912, six survived. But unlike other passengers on board, these survivors seemed to disappear afterwards.
A new film that documents the stories that were forgotten until now called “The Six” is making its North American premiere at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival.
Steven Schwankert is the lead researcher on the film and says their hunt took them to different parts of the world, with minimal information about the Chinese survivors.
“Almost every Western survivor is well-known, well-documented, we can find their grave,” Schwankert told NEWS 1130. “When it came to the Chinese survivors, there was almost no record of them after they left New York and we really just thought ‘Gee, what’s going on with this? Why have they disappeared from history?”
THE SIX 六人 dir. Arthur Jones
Among Titanic’s 705 survivors were 6 Chinese men whose stories were lost due to America’s Chinese Exclusion Act. Exec produced by James Cameron, this doc grants them their rightful place in history. @thesixfilm https://t.co/aeZETFzHuD pic.twitter.com/p7mq0sYfI1
— Vancouver Film Fest (@VIFFest) September 21, 2021
Schwankert emphasizes the documentary is not just about the six men who survived but also “how [the survivors] scattered to the four winds afterwards and where the currents of history and immigration took them,” as the film intertwines with the history of American immigration policies.
At the beginning stages of “The Six,” Schwankert explains that he and the crew had little information to go on, making it a slow start.
“When we started out, we only have the names that were on the passenger list … we just really tried to grab on to any little thread that we could,” he explained.
Ultimately, the crew decided to reach out to “Titanic” director James Cameron as part of their research.
“We really felt like he had something to say. James Cameron by himself is one of the leading experts on Titanic,” Schwankert said.
“We discovered early on that there was a deleted scene from Titanic of a Chinese man being rescued from the water. And so, that told us Cameron knew at least about this man’s story, if not all six stories. So, we want to know what he knew and when and it took us a while to get to him.”
Cameron eventually came on as the executive producer of the film.
The Six 六人 – Official Trailer from LostPensivos Films on Vimeo.
Schwankert says he is eager to premiere the film in North America for its diverse audience.
“Not just Chinese communities here, but really everybody who has an interest in these issues. With both Asian hate and with immigration, these are not new issues. And the problems that we face with them are not going to go away quickly.
“But I think if we learn to understand a little bit more, learn to understand what everybody’s been through to get to this point — either in their life in Canada, their life in the United States, or their life elsewhere — then hopefully it’ll make a positive contribution to everybody’s mutual understanding.”
Once the documentary finishes its screenings in Vancouver, “The Six” is also expected to have limited releases in select North American theatres.
