I HATE NEW YORK
A film by Gustavo Sánchez
(Spain, 2018, 75 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitleS)
The documentary feature debut by Gustavo Sánchez that follows four of the most iconic artists and activists of the city’s legendary and bygone underground scene: Amanda Lepore, Chloe Dzubilo, Sophia Lamar, and T De Long. For over a decade, between 2007 and 2017, director Sánchez followed the artists and the activists around Manhattan’s rapidly changing East Village, capturing hundreds of hours of footage. He set his eye on the survivors of the underground scene that emerged in the late eighties and began to fade after 9/11.
I Hate New York is the result of intimate conversations between the filmmaker and his triptych of captivating and driven female artists and activists. In taxis, Tompkins Square Park, and impossibly small apartments, Dzubilo, Lamar, Lepore, and De Long, offer their unfiltered thoughts on everything from success and rivalry to gentrification and the utter pointlessness of nostalgia. These interviews are supplemented by commentary from the women’s fellow Village characters and creatives, including Bibbe Hansen, iO Tillett Wright, Katrina del Mar, and Linda Simpson.
With unprecedented access to these larger-than-life figures, executive produced by J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls), and featuring a potent soundtrack with the music of Arca, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, and Sharon Needles, among others, Sánchez provides an engrossing cinematic portrait of four revolutionary women through their extraordinary stories and lives that have influenced younger generations of transgender artists and activists.
Released at a time when the city is poised for yet another transformation, I Hate New York is also a love letter that plays testament to the resilience of the inhabitants and the artists who’ve called—and continue to call—New York City home.
A favorite at numerous international film festivals, including San Sebastian, Raindance, Thessaloniki, and NewFest: New York’s LGBTQ Film Festival, I Hate New York premieres Tuesday, September 1st on VOD and will be available to stream on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Microsoft, Vudu, and In Demand.
