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New York City ’s Hotel Chelsea has quite the chronicle , and the fresh documentaryDreaming Wallscaptures its bequest as a modern turning point . The Hotel Chelsea is notable as a residence for many famed artists , writer , doer , and filmmakers , from Mark Twain to2001 : A Space Odysseywriter Arthur C. Clarke . dream Wallsis now in theatre and on VOD , and managing director Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier use the film to shine a Light Within on the forward-looking residential universe of the hotel within its diachronic context .
The Hotel Chelsea no longer claim new residents , but there are still many live in the hotel from before that change was enact . Van Elmbt and Duverdier interview several of the Hotel Chelsea ’s long - staying residents inDreaming Walls . In speak to residents who go on to mould in their artistic endeavors in the Hotel Chelsea after several 10 , Dreaming Wallsgives modern viewers a real look at just how much chronicle the hotel has behind it .
We talk to director Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier on the make ofDreaming Walls , the genesis of the celluloid , and the fascinating stories of the hotel they catch in making the documentary film .
Screen Rant : How didDreaming Wallsfirst fare about for both of you ?
Maya Duverdier : So , four age ago , Amelie and I were at the Tribeca Film Festival , because Amelie her second movie shown there , and fortunately , when we were walking along 21st street , we come up across the Hotel Chelsea , which we make out of from the bookJust child . So we give out in and hold back it out , and we discovered that the place was totally upside down and had some giving renovations . While we were in the lobby , we had the prospect to meet Merle Lister , who is in the picture show , and we began to speak with her and fortunately were n’t kicked out !
She invited us to her room , and that was the first time we really entered the plaza , so going in the hallways and seeing the extent of the renovations and hearing from Merle about the reality of the spot today , that it was becoming a lavishness hotel and had mass living there from before everything changed . We understood that the reality of the place was amazing and it was really a turning power point in the chronicle of this place , so we think , opine all of the older residents living there , we take to shoot their history . They are not the well - sleep together people of the place , and that ’s why we wanted to tell their stories , because they have lived there constantly .
FilmingDreaming Wallswith the account behind the Hotel Chelsea , what were some of the most unexpected things you view or came across during the making of the picture ?
Amélie van Elmbt : First of all , with the situation of the place , we had in thinker a sight of images that I think are part of the collective image of the mythology of the place , but that was not really the case . There were just about 50 people inhabit there , mostly one-time people dwell there from the ' 70s , and they were still create amongst the presence of the jackhammers everyday , so we were impressed by their will and their impedance and the way they were so attached to what they were doing for so many class , that was really awesome and unexpected .
Also , to see the condition of the rooms and the walls and the state of the place , and we were also much more expecting to see famous mass and artist walking around the place , but masses like Merle and a flock of other creative person were the fertile soil of this space .
Maya Duverdier : I call up it was also an encounter with the building in itself , because outside it ’s obvious , but inside , it ’s very well put together . I think I was astonished by the staircase , because you’re able to always imagine it , but when you see it in reality and so many real things also happened there , the construction itself was really awe-inspiring .
To go back a small bit , what can you share about your backgrounds in filmmaking and documentaries , and how that led up to the hold ofDreaming Walls ?
Amélie van Elmbt : Coming from fable and doing feature films , for me , infotainment are pic . I do n’t care to make boundaries [ between ] picture and documentaries , because it ’s just another process and another path of capturing masses , but the rest is all the same process . It ’s just another way to come near filmmaking , but I do n’t sense like there is a divergence between them .
For me , it was like doing a fiction pic , but with a friend and opine a lot about the careful attack we had and the deference we build with them and their chronicle that they shared generously to us , that was really amazing and something very special . But I did n’t feel like the process of filmmaking itself was so different from my past experience in fable , especially in editing and all of that .
Maya Duverdier : My setting was in reality in art school , where I get wind how to film , but it was n’t a cinema school , and then I went to celluloid school , because I know I wanted to make infotainment . So , I had done docs , but only short ace , so this was my first lineament documentary . But like Amélie say , the process is the same , even if I ’ve never done a fiction movie , but it ’s not far from it . What I liked in the way we worked together was there was a pot exemption and experimentation , and I think this place require it so much , so I ’m happy two humans and two intake worked together .
What was the duration of the making ofDreaming Walls ? How long were you filming in the hotel and what were some of the logistics of that ?
Maya Duverdier : It was just the two of us , Amélie and I , with a 16 millimeter camera . So , for a few months , we were going into the hotel and meeting mass and shoot with the 16 mm , and sometimes also with a pocket-sized camera . Then , when the producer came on - board , we came back five or six times with a squad , and this live on about two and a half years .
Unfortunately , COVID also come about , so we were ineffective to be there to film the two last shooting days , but we sent a gang to the hotel for those day . It was weird to make it through Whatsapp and things like that . And then , we had one yr of editing , because we were work a good deal with archive , too , which is a bad , big part of the redaction of the film , and then , post - output survive six months , so in amount , it was four years of work .
With pandemic leading to you having to have the crew do the last few shooting twenty-four hour period without you , was that the only time that COVID impacted the making ofDreaming Walls ?
Maya Duverdier : Yeah , the film was not already made but …
Amélie van Elmbt : We make out needed two last shooting days , and the married man of Susan also decease . She had a ritual she wanted to make to for his memory board , but were were unable to take that , so that was where we had to apply the gang .
What was your favorite moments or stand - out scenes fromDreaming Wallsfor each of you ?
Amélie van Elmbt : I call up the most amazing thing that we shot , for me , was the consequence we had with Bettina [ Grossman ] , because she was already quite old when we blast with her , and she gave us so much of her time and share with us a lot of her account and her body of work . I retrieve the strength of Bettina was for us , as youthful artist , we imagine ' Wow , this is a real somebody with a mickle of awe-inspiring artwork and she never end creating and reckon about her work . ' She was exceedingly inspiring to us , so that was a very intense moment for me when we met her .
Maya Duverdier : Yeah , I concord totally . In full term of the cinema , for me , Merle dancing with her fan , it represents Merle a lot because she is full of playfulness and also she ’s in her world , and I mean giving it to us was something very touching and very generous and very poetic for me .
What do you have coming up after the release ofDreaming Walls ?
Amélie van Elmbt : I do n’t know yet . I was offered a horror movie in the U.S. , but there are many options and we ’re still really busy with the plastic film , but of course , it opens doors and it ’s great to see the possibilities . shoot in the Chelsea take place by chance , so I ’m always very much aware about signs and catch them when they sweep my road .
Maya Duverdier : Yes , it ’s the same for me , because the best docs come from an encounter , whether it ’s with a space or a person , so I ’m staying open for now .
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Dreaming Wallsis now in theaters and available to stream on VOD platforms .
