Perhaps one of the most enduring characteristics of New York City is change. While so many concrete and steel landmarks will continue to stand out across this most famous of skylines for decades to come, the story of New York is very much one of constant change as thousands upon thousands of new arrivals shift and supplant those who have been before. Each successive wave brings new life, color and character (both good and bad), and soon enough becomes part of the fabric of a neighborhood or community until it, too, inevitably gives way to the next wave of change. For those who value the preservation of culture, this state of flux is one that generates countless stories –and risks losing just as many into the ether. Equally as challenging can be finding an opportunity to even share these stories, and that, in essence, is how Hell’s Kitchen Films NYC came to be conceived.

Both Elizabeth Moss and Shiri Paamony Eshel are residents of Hell’s Kitchen who, like so many others, are not originally from the area. Elizabeth was born in Manhattan, raised in New Jersey, but has lived in the neighborhood for almost twenty five years, while Shiri is from Israel, and moved to Hell’s Kitchen a little over four years ago. The pair became fast friends upon meeting in a local coffee house, and what really helped forge their artistic partnership was a shared interest in cultural preservation, albeit via different routes. Elizabeth is an architectural conservator with very specific expertise in historic preservation, a career born of her mutual passions for both history and conservation. Shiri, meanwhile, set out as a storyteller on radio in Israel with a successful ‘Africa’ broadcast that progressed into a television career acquiring experience as a videographer, producer, director and, ultimately, an activist, work that in 2010 took her to Angola for a time before moving to the United States in 2014.

What the two friends recognized in Hell’s Kitchen was that they lived in an incredibly diverse neighborhood that, like the city itself, is changing at an accelerated rate. The old Irish, Italian and Greek residents of two or more decades ago have been rapidly replaced by increasingly affluent, young professionals, just as the traditionally low-rise architecture of the area has fast become home to countless new, gleaming high-rise apartments. For many, the New York of today, when paired with a rapid onset of tough financial realities and fast-evolving technologies that can isolate as much as they may bring people together, have made the city far less accessible. The notion of ‘extinction culture’ enters the conversation when we are compelled to consider what the full scope of the changing character of a city may bring to bear. What does that do to our concepts of a community or a neighborhood? True enough, establishing Hell’s Kitchen Films NYC felt like a worthy initiative for Shiri and Elizabeth that could help bridge the gap between new and old residents and storytellers, but also create opportunities to preserve culture by making that storytelling more accessible and inclusive, connecting like-minded residents and artists, one neighbor with another. As Shiri herself elaborates, ‘the human connection is the top goal here… we are losing true social relationships'.
The mission statement for Hell’s Kitchen Films NYC speaks to this most important of goals: ‘celebrating the neighborhood and its community through film’.

Support from local businesses has been at once overwhelmingly positive and gratifying, and Shiri and Elizabeth will kick off Hell’s Kitchen Films NYC with a short film festival on Saturday, February 23rd from 7pm at the Landsowne Road pub and sports bar in Hell’s Kitchen (599 10th Ave- entry is $10 and inclusive of one drinks special). The intention is that this evening will launch a long-term initiative that lasts well beyond one mere festival, growing into a laboratory of sorts to foster creativity, preserve the neighborhood’s many stories and continue to share these tales with new audiences.

Submissions for short film entries into the Hell’s Kitchen Films NYC film festival are open until February 10 with the criteria that they must be no more than twenty minutes in length, and either the work of a Hell’s Kitchen-based filmmaker or a film that is about and featuring the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

All inquiries and submissions are directed to: HKFilmsNYC@gmail.com

Ezy Reading is out every month.