presented in association with the Chinese Historical Society of America
Admission: Free (donations to CHSA encouraged)
Advance RSVP.
Note: Seating is limited. Please arrive early.

Join our Facebook event.

Through twenty-five years of ever-active filmmaking, Brooklyn-based (but long time San Franciscan) Lynne Sachs has developed a unique, personally expressive body of speculative documentary that is rich with empathy, placing the intimate experiences of individuals and families in the context of world events and global history. Her recent Your Day Is My Night portrays the lives of immigrants living in “shift-bed” apartments in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown, homes that are shared by multiple families and which form tightly interconnected multi-generational communities. Shot in kitchens, bedrooms, wedding halls, cafés and mahjong parlors, this provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy and urban life and forms a fascinating composite portrait of this vibrant, loving yet culturally marginalized community. Working in close collaboration with a group of Chinatown residents (ages 58–78) for one-and-a-half years, varied interviews and conversations gave way to an improvisatory film script resulting in a deeply moving film in which these non-actors portray themselves in intimately re-created performances of domestic life. (Steve Polta/Lynne Sachs)