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A Preteen Lives in Abject Poverty in Doc ‘Flophouse America’: ‘Making Audiences Want to Rescue Mikal Is the Point’


The documentary 'Flophouse America' looks at an American family living below the poverty line in a cheap hotel.

Norwegian director Monica Strømdahl spent years traveling across the United States, documenting life in cheap hotels also known as flophouses. Eventually, after building a mutual trust, Mikal and his parents agreed to let Strømdahl film them in their home, where the bathroom doubled as a kitchen, for three years. Since he was underage while the footage was being shot, Strømdahl waited three years after filming was complete for Mikal to become an adult and to get his consent to share his story.

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