Comedy Series On Washington Heights Gentrification Debuts Pilot

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A filmmaker who successfully crowd-funded a comedy series focusing on gentrification in Washington Heights released the series' pilot episode this week.

"Guap" — a comedy written and produced by actor and filmmaker Chris Myers — explores "both the subtle and overt pressures of gentrification" through the experiences of its cast of characters living in Washington Heights. The show focuses on the character of Pedro — whose mother's restaurant struggles to stay afloat amid rising rents and a changing neighborhood.

Washington Heights wasn't Myers first choice for the setting of "Guap," but it fit his ideas for the show the best, the filmmaker told Patch in a 2016 interview. The Upper West Side native found that gentrification in his neighborhood and in Harlem was already too advanced for the story to make sense.

"I let my mind wander and thought, 'hey, Washington Heights,'" Myers told Patch in 2016. "This is a very vibrant community with a lot of culture, I have a lot of friends who live up there, and I also feel like there's not a lot of stories about Washington Heights."

The mission behind "Guap" is to use independent film and upfront storytelling to explore the idea of gentrification in the context of one family's struggles, according to a press release. The team behind the series hopes the show encourages its audience to start up its own conversations about the full scope of issues presented by gentrification and explore the question: "Who has the right to live in a neighborhood?"

When Patch spoke with Myers in 2016, the filmmaker said he planned to authentically portray Washington Height by shooting the entire series in the neighborhood and hiring actors of Dominican ancestry.

"We challenged ourselves to create a multi-generational, bilingual cast of characters, but we also made sure that behind the camera we had both gender and racial parity," Myers said in a statement. "And we are betting that our labor of love can catch fire and find a home so that fans both old and new can continue to follow the world of 'Guap.'"

The "Guap" pilot runs about 25 minutes long and its intended to serve as a "proof of concept" for the series. Filmmakers hope to attract a large enough audience in order to develop a 10-episode arc.

If the pilot is as well received as a Kickstarter campaign to launch the show, Myers and the "Guap" team could be due for good news. A campaign started by Myers in 2016 successfully raised more than $23,000 to develop the series.

Watch the full "Guap" pilot below:

Photo courtesy Chris Myers/Guap