Update: This event is at capacity.
Manilatown Heritage Foundation and SOMA Pilipinas, in partnership with SFMOMA, invite you to a special FREE double-feature film premiere.
1 p.m. — The Fall of the I-Hotel
2 p.m. — Community conversation with Curtis Choy and producers, moderated by Caroline Ocampo
3 p.m. — Manilatown Manang
4 p.m. — Community conversation with Jeanette Lazam and producers, moderated by Caroline Ocampo
The Fall of the I-Hotel (Restored Edition)
The Manilatown Heritage Foundation presents a newly restored edition of The Fall of the I-Hotel, Curtis Choy’s landmark 1983 documentary chronicling the historic struggle to save San Francisco’s International Hotel. Newly re-scanned from a pristine 16mm print and digitized in 2K, this restoration brings renewed life to one of the most important works in Asian American cinema. Documenting the decade-long campaign to prevent the eviction of the hotel’s elderly Filipino and Chinese tenants, the film captures a defining moment in the fight for affordable housing, civil rights, and community self-determination. More than four decades after its release, The Fall of the I-Hotel remains both an essential record of Filipino American history and a powerful reminder of the enduring struggles against displacement and inequality. This restoration was completed by the Manilatown Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and FotoKem.
Manilatown Manang
Manilatown Manang tells the remarkable story of Jeanette Gandionco Lazam — artist, activist, and one of the few women who lived in San Francisco’s International Hotel as a tenant defender during the historic anti-eviction movement of the 1970s. Leaving behind a comfortable middle-class life, Jeanette joined the International Hotel Tenants Association and stood alongside the elderly Manongs in their fight to save their home. Through archival footage, personal reflections, and contemporary interviews, the film traces Lazam’s lifelong commitment to social justice — from the International Hotel movement to decades of work advancing racial justice, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ equality. By centering one woman’s extraordinary journey, Manilatown Manang offers a deeply personal perspective on one of San Francisco’s most significant community struggles while honoring the generations of women whose leadership helped shape movements for justice and belonging.
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, Ocampo co-produced the longest-running Filipino American radio program in the US on KVTO with her father, ethnic media pioneer and veteran broadcaster Ness Ocampo. She also anchored Philippine News Update on Manila on KTSF Channel 26. 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 — Director, The Fall of the I-Hotel
Curtis Choy is an award-winning Chinese American filmmaker whose documentaries have chronicled Asian American history, activism, culture, and community for more than five decades. He is best known for The Fall of the I-Hotel (1983), his landmark documentary about the decade-long struggle to save San Francisco’s International Hotel and the 1977 eviction of its predominantly Filipino and Chinese elder tenants. The film has become an essential work of Asian American documentary cinema and an enduring record of the movement against displacement in San Francisco’s Manilatown. Choy’s filmmaking is distinguished by an independent voice, political insight, and deep engagement with the communities and individuals he documents. In 2026, The Fall of the I-Hotel returns to San Francisco in a newly enhanced and restored edition, introducing Choy’s seminal work to new generations of audiences.
Victor Zapanta — Executive Producer, Enhancement
Victor Zapanta is a designer based in Los Angeles. He first saw The Fall of the I-Hotel as a student at UC Davis. The film sparked his political awakening and set him on a lifelong pursuit of consciousness and activism. His grandfather was among the wave of Filipinos who came to the US after World War II, and watching the film, Zapanta saw his own family in those being displaced. Returning to the film as a producer is a deeply meaningful continuation of that connection.
Erik Anderson — Associate Producer, The Fall of the I-Hotel Enhancement
Erik Anderson is a New York–based Filipino American artist, designer, filmmaker, and musician whose multidisciplinary practice centers on storytelling across visual media, sound, and space, with an interest in preserving, documenting, and celebrating the Filipino diaspora. As co-founder of Barrio Bounce, he explores underground music and culture across Filipino and wider Southeast Asian communities. He served as associate producer on the restoration of Curtis Choy’s The Fall of the I-Hotel. Through Studio B212, his multisensory storytelling and design practice, he works across physical and digital environments to explore new forms of creative expression. His current film work includes an experimental documentary examining musical tradition, cultural memory, and diasporic identity.
Jeanette Lazam — Manilatown Manang
Born in New York City, Jeanette Lazam’s 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, the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment for women, the passage of the first domestic partners statute in the City and County of San Francisco, the strike at San Francisco State College for the passage of a department of ethnic studies, the return of civil liberties and democracy against the Marcos dictatorship 1970–82, and as a tenant/defender against the evictions of International Hotel residents. Today, she is a retired civil servant and lives in the new International Hotel on Kearny Street, where she is an active supporter of the Manilatown Center.
Esperanza Catubig — Co-Producer, Manilatown Manang
A native of San Francisco, Esperanza Catubig is an actor, producer, credentialed Montessori educator, and mom. Her first short film, Nico’s Sampaguita, directed by Aaron Woolfolk, and in which she starred, co-wrote, and produced, was accepted to 12 film festivals and won a Vancouver Award. Manilatown Manang, directed by Caroline Cabading, is Catubig’s first documentary as a co-producer. Her mission as a producer is to celebrate the beauty of the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring untold stories about women and created by women, especially of Filipino descent. Catubig is currently producing a documentary, We Have MET…in San Francisco, directed by Jessica Sison and sponsored by Sentro Filipino.
Jessica Sison — Editor, Manilatown Manang
Jessica Sison is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, producer, director, and post-production consultant with more than 20 years of experience in documentary, narrative, broadcast, commercial, educational, and corporate media. She specializes in documentaries and narrative films inspired by true events. Her award-winning directorial debut, Kuna Ni Nanang (My Mother Said), follows her then 99-year-old grandmother as she confronts mortality and has screened at more than 50 film festivals. Her broadcast credits include Showtime, PBS, Oxygen, the WB, and The Filipino Channel. Sison continues to collaborate with other filmmakers, including Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer Kim Komenich on Revolution Revisited and producer Esperanza Catubig on the upcoming feature documentary We Have MET…in San Francisco.