ghosts of cambie
A short experimental film blending visual music, collage and documentary. The film 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 Lee, learning about the history of Hong Kong migrant settler lives and Indigenous origins in this neighbourhood.
Bio
Caroline So Jung Lee is an award-winning Korean-Canadian filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. She was born in Tkaronto, traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples (also known as Toronto, Canada). Caroline is interested in exploring kinetic, emotional and spiritual movement on screen and with sound. She received a degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto in 2011 and a degree in Film, Video and Integrated Media from Emily Carr University in 2020 (located on the unceded ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, Sto:lo and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, also known as Vancouver, BC). Through experimentation in analogue and digital filmmaking techniques, sound compositions, autoethnography, performance and documentary, she explores themes of diasporic identity, feminism, spirituality, community and ecology.