Guest
A jazz-infused record of housing inequality and cultural vitality in early-’70s New York. The Devil Is a Condition is a blistering, community’s-eye-view of housing conditions in three New York communities: the East Bronx; East New York, Brooklyn; and East Harlem, where director Carlos de Jesus grew up. Only de Jesus’ first film, The Devil Is a Condition was originally broadcast on New Jersey PBS. De Jesus had recently returned from studying photography, music, and literature on a Fulbright scholarship in France, and his fine arts training inspired his approach. Although he includes interviews with tenants and vérité footage of a protest led by the Black and Puerto Rican United Front, he primarily anchors the film in emotion. In striking juxtapositions, he expresses the impact of racial inequality on everyday life, like access to playgrounds. He also sculpts the film’s rhythm from music, prominently featuring the Last Poets’ scathing “New York, New York” and jazz from the Bill Dixon Orchestra and Mal Waldron.
