Welcome to ALL ARTS' presentation of the 2024 Artist in Residence program.

I'm James King.

We're happy to present "Driver Brother," a film by visual artist Kenneth Tam.

This documentary examines the moving plight of struggling New York City taxi medallion owners.

The film takes an embodied and poetic approach to exploring the impact of seemingly insurmountable financial debt on this group of immigrant cab drivers.

Told in their words, the film offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of the drivers as they confront the shifting economics of the city's taxi system.

And now "Driver Brother."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Horn honks ] [ Ambient whirring ] [ Ambient whirring continues ] [ Sniffs ] [ Soft ambient whirring ] [ Ambient whirring volume increases ] Interviewer: What did the bank say to you?

What did they try to do?

Driver: They are threatening me, you know, why -- "Oh, this is our money."

They say that "This is our money.

So do you buy the house?

It was our money.

You refinance after buy the medallion.

And why not you are paying us back?"

I say, you know, "It is higher payment, and there's no business.

How do I pay you back?"

So they are threatening me.

So the -- "One day you wake up in the morning, and there'll be no car and medallion in front of your house.

We are going to get that."

That kind of, uh... threat they are -- I'm facing.

[ Ambient whirring continues ] I -- I put 350K toward my next... next to the loan, against the loan.

So I was so frustrated.

Like, I was not able to sleep, crying.

Uh, everything is black.

Everything is like -- all what I was dreaming of, it's gone in the wind.

In one pop -- finished.

One day I was a millionaire.

The second day I'm nothing.

And how did your family feel back then?

Do you remember?

We were all like, uh, so upset for what happened.

But my wife, she keep, like, trying to calm me down.

"It's okay.

It's -- What are you gonna do?

Maybe things gonna get better.

Maybe you're gonna get some help.

Life is, like, not just the medallia.

There is always something goes up.

Sometimes it goes down.

Sometimes, you know -- always, like, this is life.

It's not easy.

You have to stay strong and keep going, no matter what."

She tried to calm me down because it was -- it wasn't easy for -- for me.

Especially like, uh, the money that I put down payment, I remember when I got the check from the from the bank.

The -- The banker told me, "This is a lot of money.

You want to see investors before you take this money?"

I said, "No, I already planned for it."

So I took the check from the bank straight to the -- to my broker, and he told me, "Don't have to put them all.

You don't have to put the whole amount, just part of it," because he want me to stay on debt, more interest.

So, for me, it's just if I pay everything that I have against the loan, it will be easier -- less interest, less payment.

Well, then what happen, it was mistake.

Nobody knows what's gonna happen.

All everybody thought that the medallia is a solid things.

Medallia in the city is gold.

Nothing -- it's not gonna -- nothing gonna happen to it.

[ Ambient whirring ] [ Turn signal clicking ] [ Ambient whirring continues ] Yes, of course.

Mm...

So when I came to this country, I was like, uh, only 24 year old, and I was daydreaming that I could have studied and I could, uh -- I had a -- my -- the child dream was I was want to become a teacher, you know?

So, yeah, I was thinking, daydreaming, why, I mean, [chuckles] I got stuck in the taxi driving, you know?

I was thinking, all this daydreaming, become, like, a professional job, you know?

[ Turn signal clicking ] Yes.

That was like, uh -- yeah.

Uh, so these things are like -- some kind of regrets are coming back, you know, sometimes.

When you struggle with the loan and everything, those things are come up, yeah.

Why -- Why did I choose this, you know?

Interviewer: Have you ever thought about just leaving your cab behind and walking away from the responsibilities of the taxi?

Yes, I thought about it because I had a huge loan.

Before the debt forgiveness, I had a huge loan, almost $400,000.

And then, I mean, there's no business and no -- it's hard to pay the loan every month and expense and everything.

Yeah, I'm not making any living -- uh, the income.

So it's so tough.

You know, it's tough.

I was thinking, uh, maybe if I didn't get the debt forgiveness, I was leaving this behind, and I file a bankruptcy and look a different job, yeah?

Yeah, I thought about it.

[ Soft, ambient whirring ] [ Ambient whirring volume increases ] "Promissory note for value received.

The undersigned, [indistinct] Taxi, Inc., promises to pay the, uh, principal sum of $732,699, with interest thereon to be computed and paid from the date of funding until 6-1-2022, the maturity date, at the rate of 3 an-- 3% per annum.

The note rate expect -- except as set forth below from the date of funding interest only of $366.36 shall be due and payable on the 26th day of May, 20-- 2017.

Thereafter, payment of principal and interest shall be paid in constant monthly installment of $3,089.09, uh, commencing uh, and due and payable on the first day of July, 2017, and on the first day of each month thereafter, uh, to and including June 1st, 2022.

On sixth, first, 2022, there shall be balloon payment of the unpaid principal balance of the note plus any accrued interest charges, fees, costs, or expenses there-- thereon.

All payments, including but not limited to monthly installment payment, shall be applied first to any charges, fees, cost of expenses... incurred, then to interest and then to the outstanding principal.

If the execution of this note and the disbursement of fund therefrom do not accrue... "simulantansely"... then lender may elect in its sole 'untremmelered disclosion' to extend.

Number one.

The initial date upon which interest begun -- begins to accrue, or to the date upon which the loan ultimately matures, or both, but such extension will in no even exceed the number of days which... 'helpsed' between execution and initial disbursement of the loan proceed or any, uh, portion thereof.

Interest shall commence on the date lender first issue any fund pursuant to this note."

[ Ambient whirring ] [ Soft, ambient whirring ] [ Ambient whirring volume increases ] Driver #2: Yeah, that's what's scary, uh, yeah.

Like, uh, if you cannot able to breathe and you're about to die.

And it's just a scary part, yeah.

Like... you -- you'll be like, uh, now... um, how can I say?

I mean, uh, like, it's just, uh, the feeling of, uh, like, dying or something, like, uh, you're leaving everything behind, you know?

You, like -- you've, uh -- you're leaving behind your families or your loved ones and -- and... yeah, it's -- it's just like you cannot even breathe.

And that's, like, uh, scary, yeah?

Scary.

How can I say?

Like, it's scary, yeah?

March 1st, 2013 -- $650,000.

March 12, 2013 -- $648,000.

March 18, 2013 -- $647,000.

March 25th, 2013 -- $646,000.

April 1st, 2013 -- $646,000.

April 8th, 2013 -- $645,000.

April 22, 2013 -- $644,000.

April 29, 2013 -- $643,000.

May 6, 2013 -- $643,000.

May 13, 2013 -- $642,000.

May 20th, 2013 -- $642,000.

May 27, 2013 -- $641,000.

June 3rd, 2013 -- $640,000.

June 10, 2013 -- $640,000.

June 17, 2013 -- $639,000.

July 1st, 2013 -- $638,000.

July 15, 2013 -- $637,000.

July 22, 2013 -- $636,000.

July 29, 2013 -- $636,000.

August 5th, 2013 -- $635,000.

August 12, 2013 -- $635,000.

August 19th, 2013 -- $634,000.

[ Voice fading ] August 26, 2013 -- $634,000.

September 3, 2013 -- $633,000.

September 9, 2013... [ Ambient whirring ] I was scary.

I thought that's gonna be -- I'm gonna be next because of -- of the things happen, like, uh, struggling.

And all of a sudden, all what you dream of is went down.

Like, I -- I put a lot of money toward my medallia.

And all of a sudden, I'm nothing.

I'm zero.

That's...frighting me.

It was like nightmares, crying, depressed.

I thought this is the end of the life.

Like, all my dream is went down.

Interviewer: Um, can you describe the feeling of being in debt but using abstract language?

So maybe, like, sensations or... Drowning?

Yeah?

There's no way to get out of it because of the high interest that you pay.

No matter how much you pay, most of it goes to the interest, not to the principals.

And they keep adding more taxes, more fees, more things, like, from nowhere.

So they can keep you -- they keep holding you.

Nowhere to go.

Keep working, keep paying.

That's it.

Don't even ask.

And if you complain or ask, they tell you, "Go back to school.

I'm not here to teach you how to calculate these things."

And who is saying this to you?

Is it the bank?

The lender.

The broker.

When -- When you ask about fees, like, they don't make sense to you.

They just take you around in a circle, and then the end, because you don't understand, they tell you, "Go back to school," because they have no answer to my question.

"Go back to school and learn how to -- to calculate, uh, stuff."

And nowhere to go.

[ Soft, ambient whirring ] Um, you brought up being -- the sensation of being underwater.

Um, and I wanted to ask you if you can imagine yourself underwater for too long and you start to run out of air, can you describe what that might feel like?

Driver: Oh, my God.

I'll become religious right away, praying for God to get me out of here, or all the bad things that I've done.

And I know I'm gonna die.

Uh, just ask for forgiveness.

[ Chuckles ] It's, uh -- like, I know I'm gonna be dead.

So the only thing that I hope to hold into something, like any hope.

[ Ambient whirring continues ] [ Turn signal clicking ] [ Ambient whirring continues ]