ghosts of cambie

ghosts of cambie is a short experimental film blending visual music, collage and documentary. It focuses on the neighbourhoods of South Cambie and Fairview that lie on the unceded, traditional, ancestral territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (known by some as Vancouver, BC, Canada). Shot on 16mm colour reversal film and cut with archival found footage, the film explores the emotional friction within a neighbourhood of changing communities, shopkeepers, settlers and lives. While Hong Kong migrants in the 1980s were a major force in shaping the architectural and cultural landscape of the community, evidence of these lives is disappearing due to rapid gentrification and erasure of history. Remnants are left behind. As a filmmaker who previously lived on Cambie Street, this film represents the beginnings of a journey for me to learn about the history of Hong Kong migrant settler lives and indigenous origins in this neighbourhood.