Filmmaker Hopes Documentary On Nantucket Housing's Crisis Could Spur Action

A new documentary about Nantucket’s housing crisis premiered to a sold-out crowd at the Dreamland last Monday - and if the filmmakers have their way, that’s just the start.

Directed by investigative journalist Jasper Craven and award-winning filmmaker Patrick Kennedy, the documentary, titled “Room for Us,” aims to put a human face on Nantucket’s housing crisis, weaving together the stories of island workers, families and advocates.

The filmmakers hope that the film can serve as an educational tool for housing advocates both on and off the island.

“We were thinking a lot about the audience for this film and the potential impact of it,” Craven said. “Partly because the film emerged out of this educational program, Semester Cinema, I think that led us to really emphasize the film in many ways as a teaching tool, and as just a really hopefully compelling piece of information.”

But Craven has more specific ambitions as well. Local housing advocates are already planning to send the film to lawmakers in Boston with the hope that it could sway some reluctant legislators to back the real estate transfer fee Nantucket has championed for years. If the legislature votes to allow the transfer fee, the film is undeniably a success, Craven said.

“It seems like the sort of main goal that the advocacy community on Nantucket wants now is the permission from the State House to enact a real estate transfer fee,” Craven said. “Hopefully, they'll be able to use this film to help cajole some lawmakers over this session. We're going to try to show the film in Boston, if possible, and support that. So I think if there's one simple [goal], it's trying to support efforts to secure that fee.”

Filmed over the spring semester of 2024, “Room for Us” is a collaboration between Housing Nantucket and the Vermont-based student production program Semester Cinema.

The feature-length documentary, which has already screened at the Woods Hole Film Festival, chronicles the challenges faced by year-round community members searching for housing.

“What we hoped with the film was that we could move past some of the tropes that mark this coverage and also some of the cynicism and divisiveness that can mark it,” Craven said.

After Monday’s screening, the Dreamland hosted a talkback featuring representatives from Housing Nantucket, the Affordable Housing Trust, the Nantucket Land Bank, the Warming Place, and the newly-formed Nantucket Land Trust.

Semester Cinema, founded by Jasper Craven’s father, Jay, brings experienced professional mentors together with students from a dozen colleges to make feature-length films. “Room for Us” was the first documentary produced by Semester Cinema, which had previously focused on narrative film.

At first, it wasn’t clear that housing would be the focus of the documentary. But that uncertainty didn’t last long.

“Very quickly, housing emerged as the biggest and most urgent issue the island was contending with,” Craven said.

Craven is working to arrange additional screenings of the documentary on Nantucket this fall, and it will also screen on Nantucket Community Television in November.