Dreaming Walls
Documentary on New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel, for years a haven for artists and intellectuals, but soon to become a fashionable luxury hotel.
The Chelsea Hotel was an icon of 1960s counterculture and was the home of numerous writers, musicians, and artists, including Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and the stars of Andy Warhol’s Factory. It will soon reopen to the public after an extensive renovation as one of New York’s most fashionable luxury hotels. Dozens of eccentric, mostly elderly tenants have been living among the scaffolding and debris for almost a decade; caught between fear and frenzy, they are now preparing for imminent upheaval as others protest or hole up in their rooms. Against this chaotic backdrop, DREAMING WALLS wanders through the corridors, rooms, and halls, while projections on the walls remind us of its mythical history and questions the challenges it confronts in the future, as its residents and walls themselves face a turning point in their common history.