Timestep

Coming soon!

Hogan’s Alley, a vibrant hub for so-called Vancouver’s Black community is described in oral histories as a noisy place. Today these sounds are concealed by the banality and violence of the Georgia Viaduct and rampant real-estate speculation that has reshaped the neighborhood. Timestep layers representations and temporalities–from the air, and the ground. Its rhythm weaves together traces of image and sound to tell a story of various monuments; a community lost and recovered, and a viaduct as a monument to state violence. Timestep uses the site as both a witness and a protagonist, recognizing it as both an archaeology of urban renewal and a container of hope. Led by academic-activist Wayde Compton’s presentation of the site, as well as legendary performances by the Crump Twins and dancer Troy Mclaughlin, the film brings into question “official” terms such as “blight” and “slum,” which insufficiently capture the phenomenologies of displacement.