Vox Populi

Lisa and I met on St. Nicholas Avenue and 148th street. It was a cold and grey Saturday afternoon in mid October, and we had not much light for the shooting we were about to start. The film gear was hanging all around us like we didn't know how to carry it properly. We were neither filmmakers nor residents of Sugar Hill, so for those passing by, we seemed a bit clumsy and out of place.

Lisa is at least six feet tall, while I'm barely five, and we are both white and blond. I was shy about starting the work of stopping people on the street to ask what they thought about the change of demographics in Harlem. I felt uncomfortable with the expensive paraphernalia I had to point at people's faces, but Lisa is extroverted and soon jumped in front of passers-by trying to get them to speak with us. When one grump said no, she didn’t get bothered, approaching the next after him with the same enthusiasm. More answers meant more material to work with. She had a spreadsheet to write people's names and identifiable characteristics, so we could recognize them later when we were editing the five-minute movie. Lisa didn't follow any script for these interviews. She knew what she wanted: practical and objective narratives of people that were part of Sugar Hill community, whether newbies or long-term residents. Her goal was to capture the spontaneity of the discourse, not to go deep into details. She knew this was just an exercise to scrape the surface of public housing and gentrification issues. Aware that we could go back anytime to the field for more information, we walked to Convent Avenue and 152nd Street to shoot some more footage before leaving.