Your Day is My Night

Your Day is My Night

color, sound, 65 min
Blending autobiographical monologues, intimate conversations, and staged performances, Lynne Sachs' Your Day Is My Night documents the lives of Chinese immigrants sharing a 'shift-bed' apartment ...
Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
Available for sale: Digital file, DVD NTSC

Stills

About

Blending autobiographical monologues, intimate conversations, and staged performances, Lynne Sachs' Your Day Is My Night documents the lives of Chinese immigrants sharing a 'shift-bed' apartment in the heart of New York City's Chinatown, offering a deeply felt portrait of the Asian-American immigrant experience. Initially documented in Jacob Riis' late 19th century photographs, a shift-bed is a bed that is shared or rented by people who are neither in the same family nor in a relationship. Since the advent of tenement housing in the Lower East Side, working class people have shared beds, making such spaces a definable and fundamental part of immigrant life. Over a century later, the shift-bed remains a necessity for many, triggered by socio-economic barriers embedded within the urban experience. In this captivating hybrid documentary, seven characters ranging in age from 58 to 78 play themselves and recount real experiences from their lives. Retired seamstresses Ellen Ho and Sheut Hing Lee recall growing up in China during the turmoil of the 1950s when their families faced violence and separation under Chairman Mao's revolutionary yet authoritarian regime. Yun Xiu Huang, a nightclub owner from Fujian province, reveals his journey to the United States through the "snakehead" system, a complex underground economy of human smuggling. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals a collective history of Chinese immigrants in the United States. Through it all, Your Day is My Night addresses issues around privacy, intimacy, otherness, belonging and the urban experience via the basic human need of a place to sleep.

In Chinese, English & Spanish with English Subtitles. Music by Stephen Vitiello. Camera by Sean Hanley and Ethan Mass. Featuring: Yi Chun Cao, Linda Y.H. Chan, Chung Qing Che, Ellen Ho, Yun Xiu Huang, Sheut Hing Lee, Kam Yin Tsui, & Veraalba Santa.


PRESS "A strikingly handsome, meditative work: a mixture of reportage, dreams, memories and playacting, which immerses you in an entire world that you might unknowingly pass on the corner of Hester Street, unable to guess what's behind the fifth-floor windows." -The Nation

"Beautifully blending anecdotes, evocative audio textures, and an ensemble of elderly immigrant performers/participants, Your Day is My Night is sumptuous and exploratory, bringing us a Chinatown we have never seen before in film." -San Diego Asian Film Festival

"Using beds as a metaphor for privacy, intimacy and power, the film explores intercultural and trans-historical dialogue." -The Washington Post
"Director Lynne Sachs' Your Day is My Night shines a light on a little documented sub-culture in New York's Chinatown, chronicling immigrants who live communally in buildings where there's a shift-bed system. One person returns from a stint of overnight work to sleep in a bed just vacated by another person off to their day job. The form of this documentary is as compelling as its content. It is a beautiful collage of different media and music intricately edited together with the often emotional testimony of the immigrants." -BBC

"New York's Chinatown, a place as much spectral as real, flickers and flares into life in this singular hybrid of documentary, performance piece and cine-monologue. Seven working-class, immigrant residents of a shift-bed apartment play versions of themselves, recalling violent upheavals, long journeys and endless yearnings." -Sight and Sound "Moving and Profound." -Michael Moore

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS * Winner, Best Feature Documentary, San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2013 * Winner, Best Feature Film, Workers Unite! Film Festival, 2013 * Winner, Best Experimental Film, Traverse City Film Festival, 2013 * 2nd Prize, Documentary Feature, Athens Film Festival, 2013 * Official Selection, Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art, 2013 * Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2013 * Vancouver International Film Festival, 2013 * Images Film Festival, Toronto, 2013 * Festival del Encuentros del Otro Cine, Quito, Ecuador, 2014.

Films

  • Other films by this artist in our catalogue

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    Drawn and Quartered
    Experimental

    Drawn and Quartered
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, silent, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Films About Film
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Still Life With Woman and Four Objects
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    Still Life With Woman and Four Objects
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    16mm, black and white, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
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    Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
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    16mm, color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Arts / Artists
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    Sermons & Sacred Pictures: the life and work of Reverend L.O. Taylor
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    Sermons & Sacred Pictures: the life and work of Reverend L.O. Taylor
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    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 29 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    • Biography / Autobiography
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    The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
    Experimental

    The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
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    16mm, color, sound, 30 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
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    Which Way Is East
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    Which Way Is East
    Lynne Sachs

    DVD, color, sound, 33 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    A Biography of Lilith
    Documentary
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    Narrative

    A Biography of Lilith
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 35 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
    • Philosophical
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Spiritual / Mystical
    • Family
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    Window Work
    Experimental

    Window Work
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
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    • Structural
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    Investigation of a Flame
    Documentary
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    Investigation of a Flame
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 45 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    Photograph of Wind
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    Photograph of Wind
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
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    Tornado
    Experimental

    Tornado
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
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    First Steps in a Terra Incognita
    Experimental

    First Steps in a Terra Incognita
    Lynne Sachs

    video, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    A Collection of Films on DVD Exploring Women, Culture, Science & Myth by Lynne Sachs Vol. 1
    Experimental

    A Collection of Films on DVD Exploring Women, Culture, Science & Myth by Lynne Sachs Vol. 1
    Lynne Sachs

    DVD, color and b/w, sound, 65 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
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    States of UnBelonging
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    States of UnBelonging
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    color, sound, 63 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    Noa, Noa
    Documentary
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    Noa, Noa
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm , color and b/w, sound, 8 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Atalanta: 32 Years Later
    Animation
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    Atalanta: 32 Years Later
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color, sound, 5 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Found Footage
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    Lynne Sachs: 10 Short Films Vol.3
    Documentary
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    Lynne Sachs: 10 Short Films Vol.3
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 62 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Body
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    The Small Ones
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    The Small Ones
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    Digital, color, sound, 3 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Found Footage
    • Abstract
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    Georgic for a Forgotten Planet
    Experimental

    Georgic for a Forgotten Planet
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
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    Cuadro por Cuadro/ Frame by Frame
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    Cuadro por Cuadro/ Frame by Frame
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    color, sound, 8 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Films About Film
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    • Hand-Processed
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    The Last Happy Day
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    The Last Happy Day
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    color, sound, 38 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    The Task of the Translator
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    The Task of the Translator
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    color, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
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    Wind in Our Hair (Con viento en el pelo)
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    Wind in Our Hair (Con viento en el pelo)
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    color, sound, 42 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
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    Sound of a Shadow
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    Sound of a Shadow
    Lynne Sachs

    color, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
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    Same Stream Twice
    Documentary
    Experimental

    Same Stream Twice
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, color and b/w, silent, 4 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
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    Drift and Bough
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    Drift and Bough
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    black and white, sound, 6 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC, super8
    • Landscape / Architecture
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    Starfish Aorta Colossus
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    Starfish Aorta Colossus
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    color, sound, 5 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Landscape / Architecture
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    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Viva and Felix Growing Up
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    Viva and Felix Growing Up
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    black and white, sound, 10 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Day Residue
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    Day Residue
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    Super 8mm , color, silent, 3 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    A Year in Notes and Numbers
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    A Year in Notes and Numbers
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    digital file, color, silent, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    Tip of My Tongue
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    Tip of My Tongue
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    HD Video, color, sound, 80 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    And Then We Marched
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    And Then We Marched
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    16mm and Super 8mm , color, silent, 3 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    The Washing Society
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    The Washing Society
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    HD Video, color, sound, 44 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • History
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    Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor
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    Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file , color, sound, 9 min
    Rental formats: Digital file, DVD NTSC
    • Body
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    • Cameraless / Handmade
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    A Month of Single Frames
    Documentary
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    A Month of Single Frames
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 14 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Environment / Nature
    • Films About Film
    • Arts / Artists
    • Biography / Autobiography
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • LGBT / Queer
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    Orange Glow
    Experimental

    Orange Glow
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 1.26 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
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    Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home
    Experimental

    Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, black and white, sound, 3 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
    • Biography / Autobiography
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    Girl is Presence
    Experimental

    Girl is Presence
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Arts / Artists
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    E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo
    Experimental

    E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, black and white, sound, 5 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • History
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Films About Film
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Found Footage
    • Minimal / Conceptual
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    Maya at 24
    Experimental

    Maya at 24
    Lynne Sachs

    digital file, color, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Body
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
    • Children / Youth
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     Figure and I

    Figure and I
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, silent, 4 min
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    Swerve
    Experimental

    Swerve
    Lynne Sachs

    digital and S8mm, color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: Digital file
    • Philosophical
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Arts / Artists
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    She Carries the Holiday in Her Eyes

    She Carries the Holiday in Her Eyes
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, silent, 4 min
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    The Jitters

    The Jitters
    Lynne Sachs

    16mm, black and white, sound, 3 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, Digital file
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    Contractions

    Contractions
    Lynne Sachs

    Digital, color, sound, 12 min