“The Ethical Work Hasn’t Stopped Now That the Film has Premiered”: Monica Strømdahl on Her DOC NYC-Premiering Flophouse America

Flophouse America is the unnervingly intimate feature debut of Monica Strømdahl, an internationally award-winning photographer who spent 15 years documenting the impoverished communities that have sprung up in rundown motels throughout the US. Which is how she met Mikal, an energetic, 11-year old boy who’s called home the hotel room he’s shared with his parents since the day he was born. Thus began a three-year cinematic collaboration, shot almost entirely in the aforementioned home, between the Norwegian director and the marginalized trio she captures through her quietly unwavering lens. Which allowed her, and now us, to serve as a silent witness to one family’s troubling struggles with poverty and addiction – and also their touching devotion to one another, their unconditional love above all. The week before Flophouse America’s North American premiere at DOC NYC (November 16th), Filmmaker reached out to Strømdahl to learn all about her beautifully shot and ethically fraught doc, which received a Special Mention in the DOX:AWARD competition at CPH:DOX and is a Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award nominee.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.