Opens October 19, 2018 in New York City at the Cinema Village

Exclusive Return Engagement: November 9 - 15, 2018 at Cinema Village in NYC. 11am daily showtimes only!

The heart of downtown Manhattan, Greenwich Village was famous for being a bohemian sanctuary for starving artists and college students who would go on to change the world's culture. Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Jack Kerouac, Jimi Hendrix, Lady Gaga, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Judy Collins, Allen Ginsberg...the list goes on and on. But more recently, the Village has turned into an overpriced hangout for tourists, cover bands and Wall Street hipsters. The university at the center of it - NYU - functions as an extremely wealthy real estate company that extracts outrageous tuition and fees from its students while buying up more and more land. Student debt is at an all-time high while student prostitution and suicide are on the rise.

With a provocative eye and fearless tone, 'The Lost Village' explores the demise of the Village: the corporate take-over by NYU; the accelerating gentrification, where condos and townhouses nowadays sell in the tens of millions; the sky-high rent increases that are displacing the few remaining Mom & Pop shops; and the vanishing street artists who gave the Village its reputation. Ultimately, 'The Lost Village' is the story of a place that is losing (or perhaps has already lost) its heart and soul.

Director - Roger Paradiso
Run Time - 88 minutes
Language - English
Format - Digital
Year - 2017
Genre - Documentary

View press release >>

For photos and press notes contact Juliet Lamond at jlamond@firstrunfeatures.com

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"A gripping portrait of the systemic legalized corporate crime spree devouring not only Greenwich Village but all our major urban landscapes. A potent call to arms."  - Kurt Jacobsen, Filmmaker/Author

"The Lost Village is like a detective story in which the case becomes darker and darker as we witness the devastating effects of unchecked greed and capitalism on the city and its people."  - Enrrico Wood Lagonigro, Senior Curator, Oaxaca FilmFest

"A no-holds-barred assault on NYU for its role in turning Greenwich Village into a wasteland of empty stores, CVS's, banks, and fast food emporiums while simultaneously making its student body pay for its excesses, driving female students to turn to prostitution."  - Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

"The Lost Village chronicles the last days of urban Bohemia... bemoaning the increasing commercialization of the former artistic haven."  - Summer Lin, CR Fashion Book

"As homegrown as its ethos, a scrappy scholastic David shaking a fist at an institutional Goliath."  - Louise Adams, Edge Media Network

"Takes on a subject near and dear to many a New Yorker's heart: the gentrification and corporatization of the city, which is replacing affordable housing and mom-and-pop shops with luxury buildings and fancy boutiques."  - This Week in New York

"An essential glimpse into the dark heart and relentless machinations of corporate America and its allies (in banking, politics, even education) who are systematically destroying the culture of neighborhoods, Mom and Pop stores, small business, intimate arts, and the very nature not just of Greenwich Village but of towns and cities across the country. We need more Roger Paradiso's to take up the cudgels, tear off the veil and expose the evil."  - Robin Hirsch, Minister of Culture/Wine Czar/Dean of Faculty

"One of the best things about living in this controversial age is witnessing the growing chorus of voices that have had enough. So much of the public, from millennials to seniors, are being energized by a variety of coordinated efforts - perhaps especially those of documentary filmmakers. And every so often one of those filmmakers manages to arouse not only righteous indignation, but does so as 'call to action'. Roger Paradiso, with his gripping film 'The Lost Village' has done just that. A must-see film!"  - Rev. Ed Chinery, Resistance Cinema