Wednesday, October 12, 2016

CLASS DIVIDE

What happens when a  public housing project and an exclusive private school share the same street. That's what this excellent documentary looks at. And it's a sad story. The average salary of the families living in the project is $20,000, half the private school's tuition. The film also looks at the high line and its impact, good and bad on the area (Chelsea).

Chelsea is on the west side of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s. I saw this on HBO but it's getting a theatrical release too.

The film mostly looks at students from the school and the kids in the public housing across from it. A scene late on, when the poor kids see the inside of the school, is truly heartbreaking. Their lack of bitterness is amazing. And we get some surprises from the rich kids too. 


We live in an age of great documentaries. Have you seen a good one lately?
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15 comments:

  1. David Cranmer6:59 AM

    Watched Amanda Knox on Netflix. Probably wouldn't have except I was being asked to review. Came away with a few new opinions and deeper insight into the infamous murder trials.

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  2. George7:43 AM

    I'm still processing what I saw in WEINER!

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  3. pattinase (abbott)8:02 AM

    48 Hours did a story on her a few years back. Interesting that the whole of that town still believes her guilty.
    And Weiner continues on....

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  4. Jeff Meyerson8:20 AM

    Muscle Shoals
    Young@Heart
    Tab Hunter Confidential

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  5. Charles Gramlich8:37 AM

    Shame to say it, but given the problems folks have these days with unvarnished truths, I wonder how much to trust documentaries.

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  6. pattinase (abbott)8:59 AM

    Liked all of those, Jeff.

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  7. Jeff Meyerson9:58 AM

    We will check HBO, which has a lot of documentaries, for the Chelsea one.

    We saw Darlene Love in concert on Friday and she referenced the Academy Award for 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, as well as getting in one shot at Phil Spector ("Look at where he is and look at where I am.").

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  8. Anonymous10:04 AM

    I've not seen this one yet, Patti, but I keep hearing good things about it. It's certainly a story that needs to be told.

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  9. pattinase (abbott)11:02 AM

    Sounds interesting. Remember reading ECONOMICS IN ONE EASY LESSON in high school and that was about the last book I read in the subject,

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  10. pattinase (abbott)11:03 AM

    Loved 20 Feet. Great movie.

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  11. Gerard12:34 PM

    I have not seen many documentaries. I did watch CARTEL LAND on Netflix about both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Several months ago I watched a flick about Bob Dylan's slump in the '80s and '90s. That was interesting but kinda shallow. The film interviewed a bunch of music pundits and journalists and none of them knew or spoke with Dylan. All their comments were guesswork. The film did have some brief comments by a recording engineer.

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  12. pattinase (abbott)1:00 PM

    There are so many about musicians!

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  13. Steve Oerkfitz3:17 PM

    My posts are not showing up for some reason.

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  14. Steve Oerkfitz3:18 PM

    Going to the Detroit Film Theater in a couple weeks to see Jim Jarmusch's documentary about Iggy and the Stooges Gimme Danger.

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  15. pattinase (abbott)6:59 PM

    I like Jarmusch's work.

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