Dreaming Walls

New York’s legendary Hotel Chelsea, to give it its proper name, has long been a focal point for artists and intellectuals of every stripe, particularly those affiliated to counter-cultural movements. Among its residents have been writers from William Burroughs to Brendan Behan, and musicians including Leonard Cohen, who immortalised his encounter with Janis Joplin there in song, and Patti Smith, who lived there with Robert Mapplethorpe. The venue has also hosted its share of dark incidents, including the murder by Sid Vicious of Nancy Spungen. In recent years, the hotel has undergone an extensive period of renovation and transfiguration into a boutique hotel, much to the consternation of its remaining long-term residents on whom this lyrical documentary focuses. This elegy to the disappearance of a vital part of the city’s bohemian history is also a portrait of the gentrification encroaching upon a way of life.