Film Screening of Movement Films: A Message of Solidarity

On July 21st, an event was hosted at Fleisher Art Memorial, “Let’s Talk about Chinatown: Movement Movies”, funded by the Velocity Fund. The session involved screenings of multiple films, showcasing the fights and struggles exhibited by the Chinatown, AAPI and the Latino community. 

The screening included three short films, Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown, produced in collaboration with Asian American United (AAU), The Philadelphia Folklore Project, and Barry Dornfield, the 4th episode of Taking Root, and Expanding Sanctuary, produced by Kristal Sotomayer. 

These films highlighted the decades-long struggle in protecting Chinatown from demolition by city projects and Juntos’s efforts in protecting undocumented immigrants from being targeted for deportation by ICE.  

Within Expanding Sanctuary, the story highlighted the Pars Campaign as conducted by members of Latinx and Juntos community, which promoted ending the PARS agreement that gave ICE officials access to immigration databases within Philadelphia. This allowed them to track undocumented community members, making them more susceptible to deportation. The movement was shown to be a success, as the city agreed to not renew its contract with ICE. 

After the screenings, representatives of the Save Chinatown movement & Vietlead, as well as producer of Expanding Sanctuary, Kristal Sotomayer, all participated in a Q&A session hosted by one of the event’s members. Here they discussed the shared themes represented in each film, surrounding the struggles met within the AAPI and Hispanic community. One representative of Vietlead highlighted that oftentimes minority communities are pitted against each other, inhibiting each group from working together. As opposed to this, she highlighted how solidarity with other groups can help mobilize and establish confidence in individuals within each community, to fight for their issues. 

Overall, the event allowed community members to see members within each community, and humanize their struggles, showcasing one-on-one interviews with members of Chinatown and the Latinx community. However embedded in these films is the layered message of the power of solidarity and unity in struggles faced within ethnic minority communities. Through their efforts, the films highlight how, though the fight to protect the sanctity of our homes, communities, and safety of loved ones are never easy, these movements have the capacity to create actual change and progress when we as a collective decide to fight for it.