Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel

The legendary Chelsea Hotel, an icon of 1960s counterculture and an artists’ refuge for over a century, has been under renovation for the past eight years and will soon reopen as a luxury hotel.

51 people, now all in their later years, still live amidst the scaffolding. Caught between fear and frenzy, some residents prepare for imminent upheaval as others protest against the hotel’s administration or hole up in their rooms. Against this backdrop of constant change, the film explores the utopian origins that contributed to the Chelsea’s mythical stature whilst questioning the challenges it confronts in the future, as its residents, sold to capitalism, and walls themselves face a turning point in their common history.

“Beauty and loss hold hands in Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel, an intimate and impressionistic documentary about New York’s storied Chelsea Hotel.” ~Liam Lacey, Original-Cin

“In remaining present, with the past and future swirling feverishly, the film is a deeply poignant and moving love letter to those that remain, who “rage, rage, against the dying of the light,” as Dylan Thomas once wrote. Someone’s got to make a stand for the last vestiges of the soul of New York City, and “Dreaming Walls” beautifully captures their fight and their dreams.” ~Katie Walsh, TheWrap