The food we eat, the spaces we share, and the stories we tell hold essential rituals communities need to preserve and celebrate culture, history, and identity. When inequality is built into every part of our urban environments, what are the rituals we need to create and protect to combat erasure? How can we uplift each other’s existence in spaces trying to push us out? These short films look at different ways people hold onto the sacred things that connect us to each other.
Panelists
Paula Smith Arrigoni (Moderator)
Executive Director, BAVC
Emma Marie Chiang
Filmmaker
Daniel Díaz
Filmmaker
Lex Leifheit
Nonprofit Sector Lead, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development
Films
The Dishwasher
Directed by Nick Hartanto and Sam Roden
A chef at a fine dining restaurant in New York City asks a Mexican dishwasher to find good tortillas.
ÉLEFAN
Directed by Daniel Díaz
ÉLEFAN explores the relationship between space and identity among London’s Latin American community in the years leading up to the demolition of Elephant & Castle shopping centre.
Saving The Far East Cafe
Directed by Directed by Emma Marie Chiang and Martin Peter Bustamante
Challenged by a surplus of changes through the years: encroaching gentrification, labor issues, generational shifts in taste & culture, and the impact of Covid-19, the 100+ year old historic Far East Cafe fights to remain open as a central space of community engagement and belonging.
Trails
Directed by Chris Nguyen
TRAILS is a personal and non-linear portrait of Orange County’s Little Saigon.
Broke Down Drone
Directed by Marquis Simmons
Life in the mud
Partners
