For three years, Norwegian director and photographer Monica Strømdahl has followed a family of three from the West Coast, USA. Forced due to poverty, they live in a flophouse, a cheap, simple place with not much room for anything but beds. Here is the space where 11-year-old Mikal’s mother spends most of her time smoking, drinking, and sometimes yelling in intoxication at her beloved family. In many respects, it’s he who takes on the parental role. Most of the film takes place in this single room.
American poor
The director literally forces the audience to sit on the double bed or Mikal’s couch and witness the life and struggle of a poor American family. Mikal fails in one topic at school, but no wonder he has no help or chance to do his homework. It seems as if he has lost trust in his parents after all the broken promises about a trip to buy new shoes, stopping their drinking abuse, and making things better. But they are his parents, and kids usually love their parents, and so do Mikal.
Mikal is, despite his mother’s drinking, attached to her. Tonya drinks, smokes, and fights when Mikal’s father, Jason, is home from work. She wears a T-shirt and panties during the whole film, and most of the time, she is in bed. It is devastating to witness the life and struggle of the family, and as an audience, you feel that this way of life cannot continue. Mikal is begging his parents to stop drinking, but it is unavoidable; the drinking continues. The cigarette smoke fills the room, and there is only a thin curtain between Mikal’s small couch and his parents’ bed. At one time, the bathtub was full of dishes because there was no kitchen. Mikal struggles to do the dish pile while the water is running and his parents are screaming. It is a claustrophobic setting of the film, but it is real life for the family and numerous human beings not only in the USA but worldwide.
Even when we understand that an inevitable tragedy has occurred, the camerawork is kept with respect and compassion.
Motel life
Monica Strømdahl started documenting daily life in low-cost motels in the US while studying #photography. She lived in a hotel similar to Mikal’s and his family’s and became friends with them. After 15 years, her photography project transformed into the documentary film Flophouse America, about vulnerable people on the margins of American society.
The drama in the film is set in the tiny place they live in. It is about their everyday struggles and joys, arguments, disappointments, and #alcoholism. The director is almost invisible, and her photos are well-framed, steady, and always loyal to the family. Even when we are witnessing an insight into their lives that reveal moving stories, you never doubt where Strømdahl has her empathy: for vulnerable people on the margins of American society.
Ethics
The ethics were crucial to Strømdahl, and she stresses that the family had the opportunity to stop the shootings, and sometimes they did not want the camera around. In all the years, the director focused on the poverty and #housing crisis# and raised the question of what will happen to a child who is raised in an environment of instability, poverty, and abuse – and Strømdahl’s camera captures this with integrity at a distance. Even when we understand that an inevitable tragedy has occurred, the camerawork is kept with respect and compassion.
At the very beginning of the film, a voice states statistics about parental abuse and alcoholism and children living in poverty in the USA. A short glimpse of Mikal in an older version is shown, saying, «I am one of them.» To me, it was a relief not to need to worry about whether Mikal would survive his childhood. Furthermore, it was revealed that the director had decided to postpone the release of the film until Mikal was an adult and able to give his permission.
Monica Strømdahl also secured therapy and support for Mikal and Jason to help the family in the long term and when the film is released. Strømdahl was present after the premiere at #CPH:DOX, and she explained that Mikal and Jason were not ready yet for a premiere occasion, but the film team is currently working on an event where son and father will be prepared to meet an audience. Mikal finished school with excellent grades, and he still lives with Jason. This summer, he is turning 19 years old.
Flophouse America is Strømdahl’s directorial debut. The film received an honourable mention in the DOX-Award category at CPH:DOX.
