A documentary looks at New York City residents pushing back against housing troubles.
The documentary “Slumlord Millionaire” aims to put a face to a problem that far too many readers in New York will already be familiar with: the high cost of housing in the city. The film, directed by Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez, tells the stories of a cross section of people who in different ways are pushing back.
In Brooklyn, the film follows Samantha Bravo-Huertero and her family in Sunset Park as they pursue a legal remedy against a landlord whom they claim neglects maintenance and discriminates against Latino residents. Elsewhere in the borough, Janina Davis recounts how she lost control of her dream brownstone in Clinton Hill to a developer.
The movie tags along with Moumita Ahmed, from Jamaica, Queens, during her run for City Council in 2021, when she emphasized the issue of tenants’ rights. And in Manhattan, a group of residents in Chinatown is shown banding together to protest the construction of luxury towers that they fear will displace them.
Both the horror stories (mold-induced asthma; rats that, in one woman’s words, “will come marching in, almost like troops”) and the complaints (that politicians and courts are more receptive to moneyed interests than to renters) are far from new. And because “Slumlord Millionaire” has assembled a dynamic and engaging group of activists, it seems churlish to complain that it hasn’t found a way to make the material cinematic.
But its bullet-point-laden interviews often seem more suited to a news segment than an unfolding documentary. And it would help, particularly in the discussion of rent stabilization, if the film acknowledged more economic complexity than it does.
Slumlord Millionaire
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
