Film Screening and Talk: The Fall of the I-Hotel

Description

Produced and directed by Curtis Choy, the 57-minute-long documentary film captures a community’s battle to save the I-Hotel in San Francisco—a single room occupancy dwelling that hosted low-income and elderly Filipino and Chinese American tenants—whose residents were forcefully evicted in 1977 as part of urban renewal plans. By combining black and white and colour footage, stills, and newsreel videos, Choy shows over ten years of efforts to save the I-Hotel from demolition and to preserve the Asian American community organisations that formed around the building. Curtis, who was an active participant in the movement, created a living archive of the struggle.

Following the screening, artist and scholar Tammy Ko Robinson discusses the film, the I-Hotel movement, and archiving as a medium in art practice. Over the last decade, Ko Robinson has been involved in a long-term research, material culture study, and archiving project around the cultural legacy of the I-Hotel. During this talk, Ko Robinson investigates how cities are co-authored by their residents and how the cultural identities of communities take shape across time, beyond a particular place. She will touch upon questions such as how different generations engage in conversation to fight for migrant justice, and how the arts contribute to the formation and viability of democratic spaces.

This event is a part of the Ha Bik Chuen Archive Project (2016–2019). Interested parties are requested to register in advance via the Asia Art Archive’s website.