Julia Kwan’s feature-length documentary Everything Will Be captures a significant moment of time in Vancouver’s Chinatown, with the influx of condos and new, non-Chinese businesses. The film follows a year in the life of several Chinatown denizens, including a 90-year-old Chinese newspaper street vendor and a second-generation tea shop owner, as they navigate this community in flux.
Ideal for classes on urban geography and local history. What changes does the filmmaker document in this movie? Identify positive changes as well as negative changes. Compare your answers with other students. Discuss gentrification and its impact on cities in Canada. Take pictures of the changes in your city/town. Make maps of the different neighbourhoods in your city/town. Research the changes that have taken place. Debate the question of who owns a city and who has a right to change it.