I-Hotel film screening and Talk Story at HACL hall

We are excited to host a film screening of the iconic documentary  “The Fall of  the I-Hotel” and have a Talk Story with then tenant organizer Emil De Guzman, who will be in attendance. 

The event is free and open to the public.

The event will be in partnership with the Japanese American Citizens League and be held at Kizuka Hall located at 150 Blackburn Street in Watsonville. 

The film is a galvanizing moment in Asian Anerican history and woke up the conscienceless for a new generation of activists and leaders who are fighting for racial, social and economic justice back in the 1970’s up to now. 

Locally, many of our fathers would visit Manilatown on Kearny street and stay at the International Hotel in search of work in San Francisco. Or, use the I-Hotel as a launching point to travel to King Street in Seattle before making their way to the Alaskan fish canneries in the agricultural off  season. 

The Fall of the I-Hotel chronicles the reaistamce to maintain low-income  senior housing for an aging group of Manongs and Chinese elders against the forces of gentrification and corporate development. 

The struggle set the basis for California’s tenants rights, fair housing and rent control laws. 

The film, directed by Curtis Choy is a very moving depiction of life and issues that our Manongs endured. It is shown in Ethnic Studies college classrooms throughout the nation.