SALES TERRITORIES
UNDERWRITERS
You never know who you'll meet on West 47th Street. This warm and intimate cinéma vérité feature film follows four people with mental illness, off the streets and out of homeless shelters, in and out of the hospital, at home and at work, over three years. With a luminous simplicity that belies this film's epic scope, the filmmakers present a story about people who approach tremendous obstacles with humor, optimism and grace.
At times hilarious and at other times tragic, West 47th Street represents a radical return to cinema verite documentary style, providing an unobstructed window onto the lives of its characters, without interviews or narration. Set at Fountain House, a rehabilitation program for people with serious mental illness located in New York City's Hell's Kitchen.
You will meet:
Frances Olivero: Frances comes to Fountain House wearing a blue sweater and pretty flowered skirt, explaining that the name "Kenneth" on his record is "a mistake." Accepted without judgment, Frances becomes a leading advocate for people with mental illness, and is credited with helping pass important state legislation. Along the way, he is diagnosed with cancer, and his struggle becomes truly life-and-death.
Fitzroy Frederick: A homeless Rastafarian with schizophrenia, Fitzroy is living in a city men's shelter and hanging out on the streets. He makes remarkable changes in his life, but they are threatened by his choices about anti-psychotic medication and street drugs.
Zeinab Wali: When Zeinab fell ill with schizophrenia, her husband took their children away to Egypt, leaving her to live on a doorstep. We're with Zeinab as she cooks up a whole new life for herself, proving that for one person, at least, the way to the heart really is … through the stomach.
Tex Gordon: Tex was committed to a mental hospital by his stepmother when his father died, and spent 19 years in state mental hospitals. For 20 years after his release, he's lived under a court order obtained by his stepmother certifying him as incompetent. We're with him as the order is lifted, and as he takes the first vacation of his life.
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