5 lessons and 9 questions about Chinatown
2009 | 00:09:54 | United States | Chinese, Traditional / English | Color | Stereo | 16:9 | HD video
Collection: Single Titles
Tags: Asian-American, Blu-ray, Environment


You live somewhere, walk down the same street 50, 100, 10,000 times, each time taking in fragments, but never fully registering THE PLACE. Years, decades go by and you continue, unseeing, possibly unseen. A building comes down, and before the next one is up you ask yourself "what used to be there?" You are only vaguely aware of the district's shifting patterns and the sense that, since the 19th Century, wave after wave of inhabitants have moved through and transformed these alleyways, tenements, stoops and shops.
10 square blocks, past, present, future, time, light, movement, immigration, exclusion, gentrification, racism, history, China, America, 3 languages, 13 voices, 152 years, 17,820 frames, 9 minutes, 54 seconds, 9 questions, 5 lessons, Chinatown.
Note: This title is intended by the artist to be viewed in High Definition. While DVD format is available to enable accessibility, VDB recommends presentation on Blu-ray or HD digital file.
Prizes + Awards
Prix de la Ville Clermont Ferrand, Videoformes, France 2011
Best Experimental Video, Dallas Video Fest 2010
Dialogpreis, European Media Arts Festival, March 2010
Premiere
Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin
2010
Exhibitions + Festivals
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2011
Women Make Waves Film Festival, 2011
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France, 2010
Clermont-Ferrand (France), 2010