The Fall of the I-Hotel

After a decade of spirited resistance to the razing of Manilatown, the battle for housing in San Francisco ends in the brutal eviction of the elderly tenants of the International Hotel. The Fall of the I-Hotel serves as the witness to the community’s fight to survive, and as a tribute to the dignity and strength of the “Manongs,” or elderly tenants of the hotel.

This is a restored and optimized version of the iconic documentary by Curtis Choy. The Manilatown Heritage Foundation restored the 16mm print in collaboration with the UCLA Asian American Studies Archive. Restoration, optimization and a 4K digitization of the most pristine 16mm copy of the film was completed by FotoKem so that the best possible format could be preserved and viewed by the public.

This film will screen in person and is available for online rental.

Directed by Curtis Choy
Restoration produced by Caroline Cabading

Director’s Bio: Curtis Choy, An independent producer and film worker since the early ’70s, he has contributed to numerous independent and PBS documentaries, commercials, and feature films as a production sound mixer. He is the director of Dupont Guy: The Schiz of Grant Avenue, The Fall of The I-Hotel and What’s Wrong with Frank Chin. His sound recording can be heard on The Joy Luck Club, Better Luck Tomorrow, and Academy Award winner Breathing Lessons. He was previously exploited as a camera and editing technician, newsfilm cameraman, camera assistant, and boom operator. From the frozen Arctic (The Infinite Voyage) to the blistering Gobi (The Silk Road) to young government gunpunks in Guatemala (The Gospel and Guatemala), he’s totally fed up with flying Coach class.