Educational Media Reviews Online

Once Removed chronicles filmmaker Julie Mallozzi’s journey to China to meet her mother’s relatives. Mallozzi, who classifies herself as half Italian and half Chinese, grew up in Ohio knowing more about early Ohio pioneers than she did about her own Chinese heritage. Mallozzi’s maternal grandfather was a diplomat for the Chinese Nationalist government. He brought his family with him to America in 1946 when he took a temporary post in Washington, D.C. Three years later the temporary post became permanent exile when the Nationalist government fell.

In some ways, however, a different sort of exile started in 1946 when an immigration official recommended that Mallozzi’s then 8 year old mother, and her two brothers, be given the American names of Judy, David, and Daniel. Thus, the Chinese half of Mallozzi’s family began the process of Americanization. As Mallozzi grew up, it became important to her to learn more about her family in China and get more answers about them than her mother could provide.

Skillfully filmed and edited, the program is a record of Mallozzi’s trek through various regions of China to learn more about the relatives who were left behind when her mother’s branch of the family came to the United States. Because many of the family members were scientists and academics, they paid a high price during China’s political troubles. A great uncle was kidnapped and murdered by Chinese Nationalists and declared a political martyr in 1978. A great aunt was held in solitary confinement for 6 years during the Cultural Revolution because her husband's brother had once been the lover of Mao's wife. Another aunt was exiled to Inner Mongolia because her father was denounced by the Communists.

As Mallozzi records her travels and meets various relatives, what started out as a search for personal history, becomes a more universal history. Beneath the happy reunions lie painful questions. Mallozzi deftly and subtly takes the personal and makes it political. She raises questions that apply to us all. What does it mean to be “American?” What are the consequences of leaving one country for another? What are the costs of forgetting and remembering personal and political history?

For her relatives, Mallozzi says that the cost of remembering the past is high. On the other hand, she is afraid of living without memories. And so Mallozzi ends the program without an attempt to finish the record of her journey with some sort of contrived resolution.

Once Removed is an excellent addition for high school, academic, and public libraries. It would serve as an excellent classroom resource in many areas including History, Asian Studies, Oral History, Political Science, and Sociology. Its content is also accessible to the casual viewer in search of a good documentary.

Highly recommended.