Elevator Pitch
2020 · 13m · United States
Directed by Martyna Starosta
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, provocative
New York subway riders with disabilities testify to the transit system's inaccessibility, set against the death of Malaysia Goodson, a 22-year-old mother who died carrying her baby and stroller down a set of subway stairs.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a documentary that refuses to document—Starosta wraps a systemic indictment in absurdist tonal swings that make the whole thing feel like a fever dream, which is exactly the move that makes you angrier, not less. Consensus take would be 'respectful testimony'; this is something weirder and more useful.
Starosta positions herself in the lineage of essayistic nonfiction—think Harun Farocki's materialist montage—where form becomes argument; the contemplative pacing and tonal shifts between testimony and the abstract weight of Malaysia Goodson's death create a rigor that refuses easy catharsis or activism-as-comfort.
The decision to intercut lived testimony with that specific tonal register—neither angry nor sentimental, but something closer to defamiliarization—transforms what could be a PSA into something that makes you *feel* the contradiction between the system's visibility and its invisibility, all on what had to be a minimal budget.
Reviews
Martyna Starosta's new short film Elevator Pitch, about disability and disaster on New York City's subways, launches to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Americans With Disabilities Act became law on July 26th, 1990, which prohibited discrimination and guaran
Festivals
- AFI Docs 2020, World Premiere