A Documentary Film by Undo Poverty: Flushing & Sixty First Productions

October 24th, 2024 | A Reflection by Brooke Yeh

Glow Cultural Center had the honor of being one of the first community spaces to host the public screening of “The Cost Of Living,” a film that depicts the lives of three families who call the greater Flushing Queens area their home. The documentary starts with a slow zoom-out of the Manhattan skyline – viewed from Flushing – before focusing on the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, perhaps alluding to the status of Queens, NewYork as one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in the world.

Switching immediately to intimate glimpses of the family lives of the film’s subjects, I (as a Flushing resident) found myself recognizing many of the streets, supermarkets, and apartment interiors brought to light under the honest scrutiny of the filmmakers. The struggles of Yulin Mu, Jessica Fuentes, Qingzhen Wen, and their families to put food on the table, provide clean clothes and shelter, and make ends meet are not isolated, special cases pulled from the imagination of a scriptwriter to enact on screen. They reflect the real, living circumstances of the majority of working residents in Flushing, who are often invisible on the noisy, bustling streets or hidden behind a food shop counter. As a four-year labor of love between six community organizations: Asian Americans for Equality, The Child Center of NY, Minkwon Center for Community Action, Queens Public Library, River Fund, and the Chinese-American Planning Council, “The Cost of Living” aims to reveal and (1) advance a community-centered movement that works to reframe the poverty narrative in Flushing, (2) humanize poverty and shed light on unconscious biases that perpetuate misconceptions about cyclical poverty, and (3) acknowledge the realities of an economic system that is stacked against marginalized communities.

The slogan “Poverty: It’s not what you think” in particular resonates with my own lived experience as an individual who spends over 90% of my income on bare necessities; the rent alone accounts for 50% of my monthly expenses, and to make matters worse, the cost of living has been growing much faster than the increase of wages. This sentiment was widely echoed during the post-discussion portion of the movie screening in both Glow Cultural Center and Flushing Public Library, especially among community members who had dependents that could not bring in an income: elderly, children, disabled relatives, and stay-at-home partners. Though the people of the greater Flushing Queens area are surprisingly resilient, resourceful, and in some aspects, ironhearted, this film was a wake-up call that made people realize how poverty, gaps in government policy, and the changing landscape of global, national, and local economies could affect their lives. It also offered viewers a chance to appreciate and provide feedback on the efforts being made to make life better for themselves and their neighbors.

At the end of the film, a 360° shot of Flushing and its surroundings rounded up the luxury highrises in construction, street vendors, Citi Field Stadium, homeless shelters, and Manhattan skyline in one continuous view of the highs and lows of life in Flushing. As the screen cut to black with the take-off of a plane from LaGuardia International Airport, it seemed, at least for a brief moment, that there was hope for a brighter future. With the end credits displaying in black and white parting words of social critique, the film reminds us that it is up to Flushing’s residents to continue seeing, building, and believing in that vision – in spite of and precisely because of the back-breaking “cost of living,” to one day make that brighter future a reality.

Image credits: Undo Poverty Flushing Organization Website