The Documentary Focuses on Venice to Highlight America’s Issues on Housing
By Zach Armstrong
Venice was the location for both the first public screening and filming of affordable housing crisis documentary “UNZIPPED: An Autopsy of American Inequality”, which debuted at the Electric Lodge on Friday.
As one of the most famous and financially unequal zip codes in the country, the documentary focuses on Venice to highlight America’s growing problems over housing affordability. Stories of families who struggle to stay in their area are shown in the film along with conflict between Venice locals over homeless shelters. Several local organizations and support centers are featured in the documentary such as Venice Family Clinic, Venice Community Housing, Venice Heritage Museum, St. Joseph Center and S. P. Y.
The film was written and directed by Colin K. Gray, a documentarian who has written and directed projects for Habitat for Humanity, Action Against Hunger, UNICEF. He wrote and directed the 2006 film “Freedom’s Fury”, which looked at the conflict between Hungary and the Soviet Union over a 1956 olympic water polo semi-final during the Hungarian revolution. It was named one of the 20 Greatest Sports Documentaries of All Time by Esquire and earned him a knighthood in Hungary.
Impact campaign #RaiseTheRoof was launched alongside Unzipped. An interactive “Impact Hub” was created by the campaign to help get involved and find resources to help fight America’s affordable housing issues.
UNZIPPED can be watched on Amazon, Vimeo, YouTube, Google Play.
