A hybrid short creative film about gentrification of San Francisco’s Mission District.
When the she witnesses Matteo receiving his final eviction notice on his rent-controlled apartment then over-hears the real estate agent plans to sell the building for over a million dollars, Carmelita gets fired up, awoken from a long rest. She joins Matteo in His eviction fight acting as a helpful and historical poltergeist who shares stories from Others displaced over the decades. These tenant’s activism provide Matteo with ideas and emotional fuel for his fight to stay in his home. Carmelita’s poltergeist infiltrates Matteo’s electronic devices with historical footage of past displacements and other tenants who fight back to keep their homes. From the Fillmore to the Bayview to the Mission District today, mass evictions for ‘redevelopment’ is nothing new.
Based on hundreds of true stories, and her own experience living in the Mission Dietrich the past 15 years, with a focus on authenticity, The House on Lucky Street, stars local housing rights activist, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, and features dialogue in both Spanish and English.
written and directed by award-winning filmmaker, Shani Heckman, with production company, Shanestar Productions, Inc. a San Francisco based activist-art media production 501c3 non-profit, whose creative works focuses on social justice and LGBTQ equity. Filmed in the Mission District in January 2018, with support from the San Francisco Art Commission’s 2017 Individual Artist Grant, the film explores the housing crisis through the story of Matteo Florez, played by Gabe Sanchez from Killing My Lobster, the Last Latinx artist living in a haunted house and the resident ghost, Carmelita Reyes played by Amytra.
