On a summer night in Detroit, two white unemployed autoworkers fatally beat Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese engineer, with a baseball bat. The film tracks the incident from the initial eye-witness accounts through the trial and its repercussions for the families involved, and the American justice system at large. After an outcry from the Asian American community led by Vincent's mother Lily Chin, the case becomes a civil rights Supreme Court case. The case ends with tried killer Ronald Ebens let go with a suspended sentence and a small fee.
Samsara documents how the Cambodian people have suffered and recovered since Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over the country and since the subsequent invasion by Vietnam. The film uses "prophecies, Buddhist teachings, folklore, and dreams to describe Cambodians' worldviews". As part of documenting the Cambodians' suffering, the film covers several women's experiences.
Le film est consacré à Estelle Ishigo (1899-1990), une artiste qui est allée volontairement dans un camp d'internement pour japonais lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.