Join us for a screening followed by Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, Alice Elliott, and Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Lisa Shreve.
Moderated by Rachel Fee, Executive Director, New York Housing Conference.
SYNOPSIS
Miracle on 42nd Street is a one-hour documentary about the untold history and impact of the Manhattan Plaza apartment complex in New York City. Starting with the background of the blighted Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and the building’s initial commercial failure in the mid-1970s, the story recounts how – in a moment of bold inspiration or maybe desperation – the buildings were “re-purposed” as subsidized housing for people who worked in the performing arts, becoming one of the first intentional, government supported, affordable housing for artist residences.
The social experiment was a resounding success in the lives of the tenants, and it led the way in the transformation of the midtown neighborhood, the Broadway theater district and local economy. The film makes a compelling case for the economic value of the arts and artists in America. The success of Manhattan Plaza has become a role model for similar experiments, which the film features, around the country, in places like Ajo, Arizona, Providence, Rhode Island and Rahway, New Jersey.
Narrated by acclaimed actor/writer Chazz Palminteri, Miracle on 42nd Street features on-camera interviews with people whose lives were positively impacted by the complex, including Alicia Keys, Terrence Howard, Donald Faison, Larry David, Samuel L Jackson, Angela Lansbury, Giancarlo Esposito, and many others.
PANELISTS
Alice Elliott (Director/Producer) is the Academy Award®-nominated documentary filmmaker of The Collector of Bedford Street whose films are dedicated to celebrating the role of community activism in elevating the quality of people’s lives. Her short Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award and her films have been presented in over 100 film festivals, as well as on HBO and PBS. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow award recipient. In addition to her documentary work, she is a full-time teacher at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Currently she is co-directing The Dismantled with Emmy Award-winning director Jason DaSilva. Alice Elliott is a member of SAG/AFTRA.
Lisa Shreve (Producer/Editor) is an Emmy Award winning and Oscar®-nominated filmmaker. She has edited and produced over one hundred television documentaries, feature films, newsmagazine segments, music videos and corporate films. She has worked with such figures as Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, John Stossel, Linda Ellerbee, Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Michael Bay and Michael Moore. Ms. Shreve is presently producing Outlaw, a short dramatic film and The Peacemaker, a commercial written and directed by comedy writer Ned Rice.
