On January 14, the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s Documentary Series screened Director Marc Levin’s new film, Class Divide, in the DGA’s New York Theater.
The film takes a long hard look at New York City’s gentrification and growing inequality. Focusing on two distinct worlds that share the same Chelsea intersection of 10th Avenue and 26th Street as seen through the eyes of students from both the low-income public housing of the Chelsea-Elliot Houses and their neighbors at The World School — a $50,000 per year world-class private school — Class Divide explores what happens when kids from both worlds attempt to cross from one world to the other.
Class Divide is the third film in Levin’s HBO-produced trilogy that includes, Schmatta: Rags to Riches, a look at the disappearance of the NYC garment industry; and Hard Times: Lost on Long Island, which follows a number of highly educated couples who lost their jobs in 2008 and struggled to find other work.
Following the screening, Levin discussed the making and aftermath of Class Divide in a conversation moderated by Director Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief).
Levin’s films include the documentaries The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row, Protocols of Zion, Freeway: Crack in the System; episodes of the television series Law & Order, Street Time and Brick City; and episodes of the documentary mini-series Chicagoland. He was nominated for the DGA Award and won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special for his 1998 film Thug Life in D.C. Levin has been a DGA member since 1998.