Everything Will Be

Julia Kwan's poetic cinema vérité documentary looks at Vancouver, B.C.'s Chinatown district, which is currently in a state of transition, yielding to harsh economics, “gentrification,” and the inevitabilities of age and demographic shifts. Although the area still maintains a bright Far East façade for the tourist trade, one resident predicts that Chinatown will disappear in about five years. Chinese-language newspaper sales have declined and many of the younger Asian-descended residents no longer speak the ancestral tongue. Numerous generations-held family businesses are closing in favor of flavorless chain stores, while historic old buildings are being torn down or converted into upscale urban dwellings. Still, a local artist and a poet here celebrate the Chinatown that was and still is, complete with handmade signs. And one elderly storekeeper puts things into perspective by noting that before Chinatown's boom in the mid-20th century this was an Italian neighborhood. An interesting portrait of a changing community, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)