“Who spin the vodka on the cat?” They are the words that, as far as my knowledge, have not been spoken in a movie before. yet.
They are pronounced by 12 -year -old Michal in the documentary Flophouse AmericaWhich just made the first global show in Cph: dox In Copenhagen, win a A special male In dox: Prize category. Michal was only anxious about his cat’s smoke, but frustration with his parents – potential perpetrators behind the unintended moisture of cats.
In the director for the first time for the Norwegian photographer Monica StromdalThe amazing young man Michal spends a lot of his time as a family official – washing dishes regularly in the bathtub, for example, or tends to SMOKY needs – while his parents themselves drink and smoke. Although he is no longer a teenager, he is in the ways, he is the one who takes over the role of parents.
“He was hit by this fire inside, and he had this power,” says Strämdahl for the deadline. “I saw a child – in Norway, we call him LØVetann barnLike “Dandelion Children”, who grow across the sidewalk. It was a very smart school, a smart street. He was aware of his surroundings, and learned how to move in reality. ”
Palace Hotel, which is Flophouse for one time, at Long Beach, CA on January 28, 2010.
Jeff GRIGHEN/Digital First Media/Orange County Record via Getty Images
It is a fact that millions of Americans lived on the economic margin. The film begins with statistics read by Michal: “The official poverty rate in the United States is 11.5 %, which means that about 34 million people live in poverty.”
This is the same: “Many low -income families resort to long -term residences in hotels or motorcycles due to the lack of access to the affordable housing.”
This applies evenly to Michal: “About 1 in 10 children, 7.5 million, lives in families with at least one father who suffers from alcohol abuse.”
Director Monica Stromdal is involved in a question and answer with CPH: Dox Chief Programmer Mads K. Mikkelsen
Matthew Curry
Most Americans from the means ignore these lives, but Stromdal, non -original, has been attracted to explore, first as a photography student. It remained at the beginning in “Flophouse” (because it is known unknown), in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in the early first decade of the twentieth century.
“I got to know the people who lived there. After my first stay, I returned the following year and the next year, after the following year,” explains Strämdahl. “The population, slowly, my friends got to know each other well. I started filming and did so for many years.”
“These hotels have the minimum service, Strädahl lasts.” It is the best thing, nothing, but everyone needs a safe place and a roof over their head in the city. I left a deep feeling of injustice to the people who were there. She started conducting a research on how the evacuation works, and how housing mode is. I realized more about the continuous housing crisis that was taking place. I discovered that this hotel was not unique in New York, but every state and every large city already have these very reasonable hotels as they offer weekly or monthly prices. “
Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles on February 28, 2017, a one -time director where director Monica Stromdel was held temporarily
Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images
To locate Flophouses, he asked the photographer about him or his search for “negative comments on Tripadvisor about these hotels”; The more comments absorb, the more interesting it is.
“I felt that I was wandering with [residents] Because I knew many wonderful people who were in these hotels out of necessity for sleep, “she says:” I started proving that these comments are wrong, and you may say, and I wanted to document this lifestyle before it disappears “because of the improvement.
During her flights around the United States, the paths with Michal and his parents, Jason and Tonya crossed.
“Michal was eleven years old when I first met him. My room was by chance, opposite the family room,” she recalls. “I met many children during this project. In Florida, there are thousands of children who live in hotels and others [similar] Places as well. But I was the first to meet I was born in this hotel. He grew up in these corridors. He learned walking in the corridors, and he was born in an exchange of poverty and addiction, which his parents suffered. “
Strämdahl has started to feel that fixed images cannot reveal their lives enough.
“I thought photography is not enough,” she says. “I felt that I wanted to back away from a step back and allow the family to tell her story more on her own conditions … There is something around the sounds, there is something about the movement that allows a person to have more ownership and be able to transfer more of his story.”
Michaal foreplay from his mother Tonia in “Flophose America”
Cph: dox
The image of the family that appears is one of the deep psychological complexity. Sometimes, Jason and Tonya seem to be on George and Marathha from Who is afraid of Virginia Wolf?Crying with each other with Michal listening or, more often, overpowering them with earphones, playing video games. However, the operations of the clamps never reach the levels of George R Martha from the incision and the analogy; Perhaps the most common words that are speaking between parents – between Jason, Tonia and Michal – may be “I love you”.
Strämdahl, although it is invisible in the movie, is definitely a silent partner of dynamic. “I wanted to make a movie in Michael’s perspective,” I noticed. “The alcohol use of his parents is a big problem every day because he cannot communicate when he wants to contact. So, he also saw me as a way to communicate with his parents by showing them how to behave, and I think he felt that he was seen and empowered through my existence. I also think that his parents felt a vision and empowerment and wanted to show what he was.”
Flophouse America It is one of the seven films in CPH: The DOX collection is chosen for Enhancing the European movie initiative. The goal of the program is to put worthy documentary films in front of US entities such as A24 and NEON, sales, production and distribution.
“We call it” The Showcase “, explains Nora Goldstein, the director of the EFP program. “The festival chooses from six to seven European titles from their competition section, which seems to be not only the capabilities, but perhaps the correct call to the American market … Our goal is to create more awareness [films]. We are happy if they decide to verify it. We cannot rely on making big sales or anything else, but if they at least they know they exist, this is already a victory for us. “
For a movie like Flophouse AmericaAnd that will search for the distribution of the United States, is exploited for the EFP initiative as a great boost and a great honor.
“It was wild to reach the message,” says Strämdahl. “I couldn’t believe that … it’s a great opportunity to spread the word. We want to have an effect. We want to use the movie as a tool. Being part of this program, I feel we will be able to reach a broader audience in an initial way.”
“I am very happy for its existence, EFP, and it is very proud to be part of it and its choice of this way. It tells me that others believe that the topic is important and we hope that it will lead to some valuable partnerships.”
