Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air is an only-in-New-York account of Ming, Al, and Antoine Yates, who cohabited in a high-rise social housing apartment at Drew-Hamilton complex in Harlem for several years until 2003, when news of their dwelling caused a public outcry and collective outpouring of disbelief. On the discovery that Ming was a 500-pound pound Tiger and Al a seven-foot alligator, their story took on an astonishing dimension. The film frames Yates’s recollections with a poetic study of Ming and Al, the predators’ presence combined with a text by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, reimagining the circumstances of the wild inside, animal names, strange territories, and human-animal relations.
Directing | Phillip Warnell | Director |
Sound | Hildur Guðnadóttir | Music |
Production | Madeleine Molyneaux | Producer |
Editing | Chiara Armentano | Editor |
Camera | David Raedeker | Director of Photography |
Writing | Jean-Luc Nancy | Writer |