Two Films. One Manilatown Legacy

Experience two generations of Manilatown history on the big screen at SFMOMA with The Fall of the I-Hotel and Manilatown Manang. FREE! TWO FILMS. ONE MANILATOWN LEGACY. Manilatown Heritage Foundation and SOMA Pilipinas, in partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, invite you to a special FREE double-feature film premiere at SFMOMA's Phyllis Wattis Theater. On Saturday, November 7, 2026, experience two films that bring the history and living legacy of San Francisco's Manilatown and International Hotel to the big screen. THE FALL OF THE I-HOTEL — SAN FRANCISCO PREMIERE 1:00 PM — Film Screening 2:00 PM — Community Conversation with filmmaker Curtis Choy and producers, moderated by Caroline Ocampo The Manilatown Heritage Foundation presents the San Francisco premiere of the newly enhanced and restored edition of Curtis Choy's landmark 1983 documentary, The Fall of the I-Hotel. After a decade of resistance against urban displacement, the struggle to save San Francisco's International Hotel culminated in the violent eviction of its elderly Filipino and Chinese tenants on August 4, 1977. With extraordinary immediacy, The Fall of the I-Hotel bears witness to a community's fight for dignity, housing, and justice. More than four decades after its original release, the film remains both an essential record of Filipino American history and a powerful reminder of continuing struggles against displacement and inequality. Newly re-scanned from a pristine 16mm print and digitized in 2K, this enhanced restoration was completed by the Manilatown Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and FotoKem. Following the screening, join us for a special community conversation featuring filmmaker Curtis Choy, who returns to San Francisco to share reflections on his landmark film and the history it captured. MANILATOWN MANANG — PREMIERE 3:00 PM — Film Screening 4:00 PM — Community Conversation with Jeanette Lazam and producers, moderated by Caroline Ocampo Manilatown Manang tells the remarkable story of Jeanette Gandionco Lazam—artist, activist, and one of the few women who lived in the International Hotel as a Tenant Defender during the historic anti-eviction movement of the 1970s. As a young Filipina activist, Jeanette moved into the I-Hotel and joined the International Hotel Tenants Association, standing alongside the elderly Manongs in their fight to save their home. On the night of the August 4, 1977 eviction, Jeanette remained at the side of elder tenant leader Wahat Tampao as sheriff's deputies forcibly cleared the building. Their final moments inside the I-Hotel were captured in Curtis Choy's The Fall of the I-Hotel. More than four decades later, Jeanette became the last evicted tenant to return home to the rebuilt International Hotel Senior Residences. Through archival footage, personal reflection, and contemporary storytelling, Manilatown Manang traces Jeanette's lifelong commitment to social justice while illuminating the often-unseen leadership of women whose work helped sustain movements for racial justice, women's rights, LGBTQ+ liberation, and community self-determination. Following the premiere, Jeanette Lazam will join the film's producers for a community conversation about her extraordinary life, the struggle for the I-Hotel, and the legacy that continues today. EVENT SCHEDULE 1:00 PM — The Fall of the I-Hotel 2:00 PM — Community Conversation with Curtis Choy + Producers Moderated by Caroline Ocampo 3:00 PM — Manilatown Manang 4:00 PM — Community Conversation with Jeanette Lazam + Producers Moderated by Caroline Ocampo SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2026 SFMOMA — Phyllis Wattis Theater @ San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA ADMISSION Advance registration through Eventbrite is required for admission. Please reserve your ticket in advance to join us at SFMOMA. Choose the ticket that works for you! Admission to this special SFMOMA program is free. For those who are able, we also offer a $25 Support Manilatown ticket as an optional contribution to help sustain the Manilatown Heritage Foundation’s cultural and historic preservation work. Both ticket types provide the same admission to the complete program. Co-produced by the Manilatown Heritage Foundation and SOMA Pilipinas in partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with partial funding from the San Francisco Arts Commission. This film screening is a part of DEKADA, marking a landmark ten years of community building, cultural preservation, and placemaking in SOMA Pilipinas, the City and State-recognized Filipino Cultural Heritage District. For a full calendar of celebrations, please visit: somapilipinas.org For more information about the Manilatown Heritage Foundation please visit us at www.manilatown.org and contact us at [email protected]. Caroline Ocampo - Moderator Caroline Ocampo is an arts and culture consultant, curator, and marketing strategist with more than 30 years of experience developing multicultural and communications programs. Her work bridges arts, culture, media, and community, with a focus on elevating diverse voices and connecting cultural stories with broader audiences. A longtime media professional, Caroline co-produced the longest-running Filipino American radio program in the U.S. on KVTO with her father, ethnic media pioneer and veteran broadcaster Ness Ocampo. She also anchored Philippine News Update on Manila, Manila on KTSF Channel 26. Caroline holds a Master in International Arts & Culture Management, with academic backgrounds in Communications and International Relations. She has also completed leadership and marketing programs at Yale School of Management and the Wharton School. She currently directs marketing and curates for Manilatown Heritage Foundation, developing projects and exhibitions that preserve and amplify its history, legacy, and contemporary voices. Curtis Choy — Filmmaker, The Fall of the I-Hotel Curtis Choy is a pioneering Chinese American independent filmmaker, producer, and film worker whose career spans more than five decades. He directed Dupont Guy: The Schiz of Grant Avenue, The Fall of the I-Hotel, and What's Wrong with Frank Chin?, while contributing to numerous independent and PBS documentaries, commercials, and feature films as a production sound mixer. His sound recording credits include The Joy Luck Club, Better Luck Tomorrow, and the Academy Award-winning Breathing Lessons. Choy’s landmark 1983 documentary The Fall of the I-Hotel remains an essential work of Asian American cinema, preserving the struggle to save San Francisco’s International Hotel and the community of Manilatown. On November 7, Choy returns to San Francisco for the SFMOMA premiere of the newly enhanced and restored film. Jeanette Gandionco Lazam - Documentary Subject, Manilatown Manang Born in 1949, Jeanette entered this world four years after WWII ended, at the dawn of the nuclear age, with the development of the hydrogen bomb, the use of the term "The Iron Curtain" describing the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies, and the establishment of Communist China. Born in New York City, she is the second child of Pilar and Francisco Lazam. From the moment she opened her eyes her world was shaped by the major political and social events of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1980s. Some of those events were demonstrations from the East to the West Coast for Racial Equality and Justice during the Civil Rights era, for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment for Women, the passage of the first Domestic Partners Statue in the City and County of San Francisco, the strike at San Francisco State College for the passage of a Department of Ethnic Studies, for the return of Civil Liberties and Democracy against the Marcos Dictatorship 1970 - 1982, and as a tenant/defender against the evictions of International Hotel residents.