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Documentarian Jamie Kastner's film Charlotte's Castle should be of interest to anyone interested in social history, architecture, residential design, gentrification, renoviction, urban activism, community organizing, and/or the quasi-magical power and synergy of like-minded and passionate individuals sharing common spaces.
To a person, the residents and former residents are entirely relatable: their love for the building, its history, and the experience of living there is clear. By contrast, the representative of the Dutch developer Prowinko that attempted to desecrate the building (and partly succeeded) is entirely complicit in his own portrayal as a grade-A asshat. (Thank you, Jamie Kastner, for keeping the outtakes in.) The developer's tactics are classic--undertake renos apartment by apartment, as tenants move out, and thereby make life a living hell for the remaining residents until they too are forced to flee.
Ah, capitalism. It never gets old.
To a person, the residents and former residents are entirely relatable: their love for the building, its history, and the experience of living there is clear. By contrast, the representative of the Dutch developer Prowinko that attempted to desecrate the building (and partly succeeded) is entirely complicit in his own portrayal as a grade-A asshat. (Thank you, Jamie Kastner, for keeping the outtakes in.) The developer's tactics are classic--undertake renos apartment by apartment, as tenants move out, and thereby make life a living hell for the remaining residents until they too are forced to flee.
Ah, capitalism. It never gets old.
