Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air

7.5 / 10

(6 votes)

Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air is an only-in-New-York account of Ming, Al, and Antoine Yates, who cohabited in a high-rise social housing apartment at Drew-Hamilton complex in Harlem for several years until 2003, when news of their dwelling caused a public outcry and collective outpouring of disbelief. On the discovery that Ming was a 500-pound pound Tiger and Al a seven-foot alligator, their story took on an astonishing dimension. The film frames Yates’s recollections with a poetic study of Ming and Al, the predators’ presence combined with a text by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, reimagining the circumstances of the wild inside, animal names, strange territories, and human-animal relations.

Country:
Genre:

Documentary

Duration:

71 minutes

Year:

2014

Director:

Phillip Warnell

Cast:
Antoine Yates

Rajiv

Brianna

Johnny Jarrett-Graham

Willow Samuel

Crew:
Phillip Warnell

Director

Chiara Armentano

Editor

David Raedeker

Director of Photography

Hildur Guðnadóttir

Music

Madeleine Molyneaux

Producer