'Caged Men: Tales from Chicago's SRO Hotels' (2017) – Aaron Shipp.

Intimate, humane, moving, palpably claustrophobic, and notably dignified documentary about the hard fought lives of those disparate individuals who live and work in these run down, yet extremely purposeful single room occupancy hotels. Inevitably, Aaron Shipp's stark, earnest and insightful Caged Men: Tales from Chicago's SRO Hotels proved to be a profoundly melancholy, socially conscious work of engrossing non-fiction filmmaking. The demonstrative gap between those that have, and those that have not is frankly addressed in this fine, balanced, highly commendable documentary. The sad reality that so many of these wholly necessary establishments have been sold and gentrified is somewhat damning of the ruling echelon, whose only core values are that of accruing more money, without a thought of the cost to humanity.