‘Big Fight in Little Chinatown’ documentary reveals devastating effects of gentrification
By Iris Jung
The trailer for “Big Fight in Little Chinatown,” which documents the story of Chinatowns across North America, was released on Tuesday.
Directed by Karen Cho, a Chinese Canadian documentary filmmaker in Montreal, “Big Fight in Little Chinatown” is described as a “story of community resistance and resilience.” In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential rise of anti-Asian hate, the documentary focuses on the Chinatown neighborhoods of New York, Vancouver and Montreal, revealing the voices of the residents who fought to protect their homes
Depicting the bustling life within the Chinatowns, the documentary focuses on the daily lives of Chinatown residents before transitioning into how forceful attempts at gentrification and development have forced those residents to fight for their homes.
“Developers, they come in, they prey on all these types of vulnerabilities. And if you don’t fight back – if you don’t organize as a community that’s how we’re gonna lose everything,” a resident states in the trailer.
By filming the “lives of residents, businesses and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure,” the documentary “follows Chinatown communities resisting the pressures around them.”
“If you think about where it’s located,” a resident states, “that really makes Chinatown a neighborhood the city wants to take back to make a lot of money off of.”
Another resident also highlights the underlying racial motives behind attempts at Chinatowns’ removal, revealing that the erasure of the Chinese begins with training a “bullseye onto Chinatowns.”
As protestors are dragged away by the police, the voice of a resident explains, “this is really a battle for the soul of Chinatown.”
The film will premiere on Friday at DOC NYC 2022.
Featured Image via EyeSteelFilm
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