Ming of Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air

Directed by Phillip Warnell

Phillip Warnell’s beautifully crafted, haunting documentary explores the secret lives, behaviour and extreme levels of human-beast intimacy and communication, focusing on the ‘only in New York’ story of Antoine Yates.

In October 2003, Antoine Yates was arrested for reckless endangerment, following the discovery of his cohabitation in a Harlem high-rise with Ming, a five-hundred-pound tiger and Al, a seven-foot alligator. Warnell explores the story of Yates and combines this, to stunning effect, with filmic observation of predators in domesticated geographies.

Duration:
71 minutes

Languages:
English

Country of origin:
Great Britain and USA

Year of production:
2015