Latest news with #Mikal
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Preteen Lives in Abject Poverty in Doc ‘Flophouse America': ‘Making Audiences Want to Rescue Mikal Is the Point'
Norwegian director Monica Strømdahl spent years traveling across the United States, documenting life in cheap hotels also known as flophouses. Then in 2017, she met 11-year-old Mikal in a hotel lobby. Strømdahl had met many children in flophouses, but Mikal was the only child whom she had met born into the situation. 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. The result is 'Flophouse America,' a documentary about Mikal, his parents, and the small home that they share. Amid addiction and chaos is a surprising amount of love and hope. The doc makes it clear that Mikal's heartbreaking situation is more common in the U.S. than many people may think. More from Variety Jambika Boards 'Unwelcomed' as the Chilean Film Heads to Hot Docs (EXCLUSIVE) 'Speak' Directors on Making Doc About Teenage Orators: 'I Thought This Would Be the Most Entertaining Way to Help Make Education and Empathy Great Again' 'Militantropos' Acquired by Square Eyes Ahead of Premiere in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight (EXCLUSIVE) Statistics read by Mikal at the beginning of the doc make that clear. 'The official poverty rate in the U.S. is 11.5%, meaning that approximately 34 million people live in poverty,' Mikal says. 'Many low-income families resort to long-term stays in hotels or motels due to a lack of access to affordable housing. About 1 in 10 children, 7.5 million, live in households with at least one parent who has an alcohol abuse disorder.' ''Flophouse America' is filmed in America and in one bedroom, but it's important to remember that millions of children fall through the cracks of society worldwide,' Strømdahl told Variety. 'As documentary filmmakers, we have a duty to hold up a mirror to those cracks. Only by showing what the problem feels like can we begin to do something about it.' 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. In March, 'Flophouse America' had its world premiere in the main competition section of Copenhagen's documentary festival CPH:DOX. This was followed by screenings at Visions du Réel in Switzerland, Movies That Matter in the Netherlands, and Docville in Belgium. Ahead of the film's screening at Poland's Docs without Gravity fest next month, Variety spoke with Strømdahl. Strømdahl: Mikal's parents let me film because they wanted to be understood. There was a lot of pain in their lives, but also a lot of honesty. They knew they were struggling, but they were also proud to have given Mikal a better upbringing than they had. In their eyes, he was protected from the life they had to endure, and in that sense, they had been very successful. I think they saw the film as a way to tell the truth about addiction, about poverty, and about trying to give the next generation better chances in life. They also trusted that I would treat them with care, not judgment. It was important to me that they knew they had the power in the room, when I was filming or not. Mikal saw the camera as a way to be seen. He's a very perceptive and emotionally intelligent boy. In a home where adult emotions often dominated the space, the camera became a way for him to claim some of it back. He used it, in a sense, as a mirror to show his parents how he felt and what he was going through. He had a hope that the film would help them understand his perspective. We talked about this throughout the process. He was never passive; he was very aware. This dilemma, whether to keep filming or step in, is as old as documentary itself. I never feared for Mikal's immediate safety, but I was deeply concerned about the long-term impact his environment could have on him. That's why I spent so much time with the family: to understand their dynamic, to move with care and intention. And honestly, I think I did intervene by making this film together with the family. I wasn't absent. I stayed in close contact with them throughout, and we made a care plan ensuring Mikal received long-term therapeutic support. I do believe he felt seen and empowered by the process, and by my presence. In a way, making audiences want to rescue Mikal is the point. It didn't surprise me at all; the love was always present. From the very beginning, it was important to me to show the family not just as statistics, but as full, complex human beings. Mikal's parents had a clear goal: to give him a safer, more emotionally open upbringing than they had themselves. They wanted him to feel loved, and they gave him space to express himself at all times. Their way of communicating, their openness, and their emotional honesty are qualities many might envy. That's what I tried to show in the film, not just the struggle, but the connection, the intent, and the humanity that persisted through it all. One of Mikal's motivations for being part of the film was to connect with his parents and help them understand what life was like for him. When we showed the footage to Jason and Mikal together, it became a powerful moment where they were able to connect in a new way. They had conversations they had never had before. It opened up a space for honesty, and I believe it helped in the process of healing. It brought them closer in some ways. This new connection between them will, for me, stand as one of the most important moments in the whole process of making this film. Sales agency Lightbox boarded 'Flophouse America' in March. The film is seeking distribution. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Man executed by firing squad in South Carolina
A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later. "Tonight, the state of South Carolina executed him by firing squad -- a horrifying act that belongs in the darkest chapters of history, not in a civilized society," defense lawyer David Weiss said in a statement. "Mikal died in full view of a system that failed him at every turn -- from childhood to his final breath." Myers found Mahdi hiding in a garden shed at his home before Mahdi killed him and set the body on fire. Mahdi also pleaded guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk three days before he killed Myers. South Carolina gives its death row inmates a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair and the firing squad. Mahdi chose the firing squad. The first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years was carried out in South Carolina on March 7, when a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents was put to death. A three-person squad of Department of Corrections volunteers opens fire on the condemned man, who is restrained in a chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away. Mahdi had requested clemency from Governor Henry McMaster but South Carolina's Republican chief executive did not grant it, or any previous clemency petitions. Mahdi's lawyers had argued that he had suffered his entire life. He was four when his mother fled her abusive husband, leaving the boy to be raised by his volatile mentally ill father, they said. "Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement," his lawyers said. They described Mahdi as "deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry and abused youth who committed the capital crimes." Mahdi's execution was the 12th in the United States this year. There were 25 last year. The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection. Alabama has carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, a method that has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes." Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, charged with the high-profile December 4 murder in New York of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. sst/sla/acb
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Man executed by firing squad in South Carolina
A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later. "Tonight, the state of South Carolina executed him by firing squad -- a horrifying act that belongs in the darkest chapters of history, not in a civilized society," defense lawyer David Weiss said in a statement. "Mikal died in full view of a system that failed him at every turn -- from childhood to his final breath." Myers found Mahdi hiding in a garden shed at his home before Mahdi killed him and set the body on fire. Mahdi also pleaded guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk three days before he killed Myers. South Carolina gives its death row inmates a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair and the firing squad. Mahdi chose the firing squad. The first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years was carried out in South Carolina on March 7, when a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents was put to death. A three-person squad of Department of Corrections volunteers opens fire on the condemned man, who is restrained in a chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away. Mahdi had requested clemency from Governor Henry McMaster but South Carolina's Republican chief executive did not grant it, or any previous clemency petitions. Mahdi's lawyers had argued that he had suffered his entire life. He was four when his mother fled her abusive husband, leaving the boy to be raised by his volatile mentally ill father, they said. "Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement," his lawyers said. They described Mahdi as "deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry and abused youth who committed the capital crimes." Mahdi's execution was the 12th in the United States this year. There were 25 last year. The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection. Alabama has carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, a method that has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others -- California, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use "for the vilest crimes." Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, charged with the high-profile December 4 murder in New York of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. sst/sla/acb
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lightdox Boards Monica Stromdahl's ‘Flophouse America' Ahead of CPH:DOX World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
Sales agency Lightdox has boarded Monica Strømdahl's 'Flophouse America,' which has its world premiere on Wednesday in the main competition section of Copenhagen's documentary festival CPH:DOX. The film follows 12-year-old Mikal, who shares a small room in a cheap hotel, commonly known as a flophouse, with his parents and their cat, Smokey. Their home is marked by chaos and alcohol abuse, but also by love and the hope for a better future. More from Variety How Do Political Docs Stay Alive in New Trump Era? Key Documentary Players Meet at CPH:DOX to Ponder Alternatives After 'Streamers Went to the Right' Putin Assassination Target Christo Grozev on Why Life Has Become Even More Dangerous: 'The Bad Guys Now Are Seen as Being OK in the U.S.' Raina Acquires 'King Matt the First,' Exploring the Bond Between Two Sisters, Ahead of Hot Docs Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) Strømdahl spent years traveling across the U.S., documenting life in these hotels. Eight years ago, she met Mikal, one of many children growing up in this environment. This coming-of-age documentary follows him over three years, capturing the pain of a fractured childhood alongside the warmth and complexity of his family. Lightdox's Anna Berthollet said: 'This extraordinary film unveils the raw and heartbreaking reality of a young boy's fight for hope amidst the chaos of poverty and addiction. Through Monica Strømdahl's compassionate yet unflinching lens, we witness the fragility of life on the margins and gain a powerful perspective on struggles too often overlooked. 'We are committed to defending this film and sharing Mikal's story with the world, as it has the potential to spark much-needed conversations about inequality and the vulnerable children facing these challenges every day.' Siv Lamark is the co-writer and editor. The film is produced by Fri Film's Beathe Hofseth and Siri Natvik. Basalt Film's Eline van Wees is a co-producer. Exec producers are David Sutherland, and Joshua Seftel and Eric Nicols at Smartypants. Norsk Filmdistribusjon is handling distribution in Norway; and Cinema Delicatessen is handling distribution in the Netherlands. Broadcasters on board include RBB/Arte. Best of Variety The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More
