Worlds collide in A DECENT HOME, as the fading American dream of home ownership meets the changing American stereotype of “trailer-trash” mobile home parks. Set against the backdrop of the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis, and the widening gap between rich and poor, the film explores the last frontier in housing through the lives of those who need it most – and through the eyes of investors who are snapping up parks as cash cows, making sky-high returns on their investments.
A DECENT HOME is a character-rich, feature-length documentary about the uniquely American phenomenon of mobile home parks, and the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis. This issue-based film unfolds through the colorful stories of mobile home park residents across the US – retiring baby boomers who can’t afford to keep their homes; the poor who have no hope of living anywhere else; hipsters who are making lifestyle choices influenced by the tiny home movement and the realization that home ownership may never be within their reach. It also unfolds through the offbeat stories of a new generation of real estate “magnates,” drawn to 20 percent returns on their investments. They come from all walks of life — business school graduates, small investors, would-be ntrepreneurial types buying out more and more of the estimated 50,000 “mom and pop” trailer parks across the US. Looming over it all is the specter of the ultra-rich investors who are moving into the business – Warren Buffett, Sam Zell, the Carlyle Group – and who are raising urgent questions about the future of affordable housing itself.
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SARA TERRY, DIRECTOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER
SARA TERRY has directed and produced two feature-length documentaries. Her first film, Fambul Tok, the story of an unprecedented grass-roots forgiveness program in Sierra Leone, premiered at SXSW in 2011 and played at more than a hundred festivals around the world. It was supported by the Sundance Documentary Institute and Chicken and Egg, and was included on Paste magazine’s list of 100 best documentaries of all time, and was also included on a list of “Top 50 documentaries that will change your life.” FOLK, Terry’s second documentary, enjoyed a successful niche film and music festival run, including DOC NYC, Nashville Film Festival and Bonnaroo Music Festival. Terry is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, and has worked as a story consultant or consulting producer on more than a dozen documentaries. She is also a Guggenheim Fellow in Photography and a member of VII Photo.
ALYSA NAHMIAS, PRODUCER
ALYSA NAHMIAS is an LA-based filmmaker. She recently produced the Sundance Jury Award-winning documentary film Unrest (dir. Jennifer Brea). Her debut feature documentary, Unfinished Spaces (2011, co-directed with Benjamin Murray) was broadcast on PBS and HBO Latin America, won a 2012 Independent Spirit Award, numerous film festival prizes, and was selected for Sundance Film Forward. Her producing credits also include the documentaries Shield and Spear (dir. Petter Ringbom, Hot Docs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, 2014) and Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq (dir. Nancy Buirski, creative advisor Martin Scorsese, New York Film Festival, Berlinale, PBS American Masters, 2013), and the scripted feature No Light and No Land Anywhere (dir. Amber Sealey, executive producer Miranda July, Los Angeles Film Festival 2016).