VIDEO | THEATRE

In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play
Online, Festival Website

This eleven-minute documentary of excerpts from In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play (2003) was assembled by filmmaker Dawn Buie. In the play, a young Indigenous woman arrives in the DTES, looking for a job and looking for her Aunt Rita. During her search, she encounters the life and times of the Downtown Eastside past and present. This wild joy ride through one hundred years of laughter and tears told stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to survive in hard times. The play was co-written by Renae Morriseau, James Fagan Tait (director), Savannah Walling and Adrienne Wong, inspired by stories from people of the Downtown Eastside. Co-produced by the Carnegie Community Centre and Vancouver Moving Theatre, in association with the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall.

VIDEO  | CONVERSATION

White Riot: A Public Conversation about Powell Street and the Downtown Eastside, Powell Street Festival
Online, Festival Website

An onsite recording of the panel conversation White Riot: A Public Conversation about Powell Street and the Downtown Eastside, held this summer during the Powell Street Festival (1:21:20, 2023). Henry Tsang talks with Nicole Yakashiro, and Right to Remain research collective members Jeff Masuda, Audrey Kobayashi, and Trevor Wideman about the historic dispossession of marginalized peoples in the Downtown Eastside and the relationship to the Japanese Canadian community prior to and since internment. The speakers are contributing writers in Henry Tsang’s recent book, WHITE RIOT: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver.

VIDEO  | THEATRE

Outside: a Performance by Theatre Terrific
Online, Festival Website

Created from the actors’ personal stories inspired by the theme of “outside”, this film showcases stories of connecting to nature, re-establishing relationships with family members, not having access to meeting needs and rights along with being excluded. The group dances, they sing, they breathe in the outside. Presented and filmed at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, September 2023. Co-directed by Angelo Moroni and Kevin Jesuino, sound design and composition by Angelo Moroni.

VIDEO | HISTORY TALK

The Chinese Laundry, presentation by Elwin Xie
Online, Festival Website

Since the arrival of the Chinese in North America’s Gold Mountain, the Chinese laundry has been closely tied to the Chinese community. Not so long ago, “no tickee, no laundry” was a common phrase used in daily conversation in BC towns and cities. Curiously, neither the Chinese community, museum community, nor academia has shone a light on this elephant in the room. Recorded this summer at the BC Historical Federation Conference in Princeton, Elwin Xie draws on material within the public domain as well as from his personal treasure trove (47:39, 2023), Raised in his family’s laundry business in Vancouver’s Chinatown and Hogan’s Alley in the 1960s, Elwin is an author, a museum interpreter, and long time Festival associate. Well done Elwin! 

VIDEO | INTERVIEW

Stories We Need to Hear About Crab Park
Online, Festival Website

CRAB Park is under a lot of pressure and duress, and the Festival wanted to hear from those who know the Park. In 2022 we asked Don Larson, president of CRAB Water for Life Society, and Veronica Butler to look back on the park’s history to share some stories. They gave us a “whole lotta truth”. Both Don and Veronica were part of the 1984 campout on the landfill and were pivotal in the creation of Create a Real Available Beach, that is, CRAB Park. They continue to steward the park: Veronica shares the story she holds as firekeeper of the sacred fire and carrier of oral histories for reconciliation; and Don continues to hold the feet of the powers-that-be to the fire! He says these are stories we need to hear about the central waterfront of Vancouver, it’s not just the Downtown Eastside. They share their dreams for the future of the Park including an expanded fresh-water bird marsh and a native healing lodge. Pre-recorded in the park.