The shape of Manhattan’s Chinatown is changing. Its tourism industry in a state of decline as businesses shutter and unemployment soars, what was once a thriving center for the Chinese community of NYC has seen residents born and raised around the buzz of Canal Street disperse to its outer boroughs, like the expanding new Chinatown of Flushing, Queens.

But, for those left behind, the heart of their community remains in Manhattan, faced with the question of how to drive interest back to the neighborhood, and sustain businesses reliant on a passing trade that’s continually shrinking. In short documentary Chasing Light, director Geoff Sean Levy spotlights the area through the lens of Wellington Chen – the Chinatown Partnership director for whom photographing the district has become an important tool for documenting its evolution. Capturing the local landscape as a means of deepening the connection with this historic neighborhood, together they engage with the people who exist as the pulse of the district, and the sense of change they witness around them.

In Chen’s encyclopedic knowledge of New York City, and his contributions to protecting Chinatown’s cultural legacy, we explore the area through the eras, as the threat of redevelopment rises from its shifting demographics. Detailing the neighborhood’s evolving identity through the stories of five business owners who hold a stake in its continuity, Chasing Light centers the pursuit of a future that is secured for Chinatown’s residents – without forgetting the heritage that serves as its foundations.