Documenting Our Community Through Film: “People’s Land” by Alvin Tsang & Siyan Wong

Homelessness is becoming a bigger problem everyday in NYC and around the world. Why? In this talk, filmmaker Alvin Tsang and artist Siyan Wong will explore this question by sharing clips from their work-in-progress documentary, “People’s Land.” This film follows Siyan (also a workers rights lawyer living in Lower East Side/Chinatown) as she tries to understand this oversized and overwhelming housing problem by posing questions to residents, workers, landlords, activists, politicians and others in her neighborhood about the challenges they face. Siyan reflects on what she learns also through her social realist oil paintings, and examines the viability of a community-led rezoning plan aimed to strike a balance between the needs of residents and development in the world’s wealthiest city and biggest financial center.