The Lost Village

Filmmaker Roger Paradiso’s documentary shines a harsh light on the changing personality of New York City’s Greenwich Village. Once a hub of eccentric culture with bohemian boutiques, off-beat book stores, performance venues for iconoclastic talents, and low-rent apartments that housed struggling artists, today’s Greenwich Village is pockmarked with empty stores created by landlords who jacked up rents. Instead of mom-and-pop shops, the neighborhood now features a proliferation of bank branches and franchises from national retailers. Paradiso is particularly angry at the encroachment of New York University (NYU) into the local real estate market and the financial toll on students. According to this film, some NYU students resort to taking jobs as sex workers in order to cover their exorbitant tuition and housing costs (one also claims that she is unable to transfer her NYU credits to another school where tuition is considerably lower). Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with Greenwich Village’s history will surely be depressed by the litany of drastic changes forced on this once-vibrant community. But Paradiso’s focus is somewhat unwieldly, spreading a broad brush over too many perceived injustices (despite the filmmaker’s insistence, NYU is not responsible for all of the neighborhood’s ills, and landlords have a right to charge whatever they want for rent). Still, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)