Kill the Poor (film)

Infobox Film | name = Kill the Poor


director = Alan Taylor
producer = Ruth Charny
Lianne Halfon
Russell Smith
John Malkovich
Gary Winick
Alexis Alexnian
writer = Daniel Handler
starring =David Krumholtz
Clara Bellar
Paul Calderon
Jon Budinoff
Cliff Gorman
Damian Young
Heather Burns
Otto Sanchez
Zak Orth
Larry Gilliard Jr.
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = IFC Films
released = January 6, 2006
runtime = 85 min
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0365407

"Kill the Poor" is director Alan Taylor's screen adaptation of a novel by Joel Rose. The film is set in Manhattan's Alphabet City in the early 1980s, when the neighborhood was a center of illegal drug activity.

Plot

"Kill the Poor" begins with a fire in the apartment of tough guy Carlos DeJesus and his troublemaking son Segundo. The screenplay then focuses on the other tenants of the rundown building in an attempt to determine who set the blaze.

The other principles are:

* Joe Peltz, a young man who ignored his uncle's warnings to bring his wife Annabelle and their young child into the neighborhood where his Jewish grandparents had their start in America;

* Spike, an aspiring found-object sculptor;

* Delilah, a flamboyant gay man;

* Butch, a presumptuous graduate student;

* Scarlet, the tenement's resident floozy;

* Negrito, a fixture in the neighborhood.

A shared distrust of Carlos and Segundo unites this eclectic group and prompts them to hold "co-op" meetings with one goal: eviction of Carlos and Segundo DeJesus.

Release Dates

"Kill the Poor" was first screened at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2003. Its general release was in 2006 at the IFC Center in New York City.

Cast

* David Krumholtz — Joe Peltz
* Clara Bellar — Annabelle Peltz
* Paul Calderon — Carlos DeJesus
* Jon Budinoff — Segundo
* Cliff Gorman — Yakov
* Damian Young — Delilah
* Heather Burns — Scarlet
* Otto Sanchez — Negrito
* Zak Orth — Butch
* Larry Gilliard Jr. — Spike

References

* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/movies/06poor.html Lee, Nathan. (2006, January 6). "Ragtag Tenants in a Shabby Part of Town". The New York Times, p. B18]