Graham (Philip Ettinger) is in a rush to get home. But when Hashim (Renrick Palmer), a homeless East African man, approaches him on the subway platform, his night takes an unexpected turn.

Director’s Vision ‘Hold Up’

HOLD UP is based on an interaction I had with an Eritrean man, Hashim, late one night on a Harlem subway platform last year, at the height of the pandemic. Of my many encounters with people experiencing homelessness in New York, none was as poignant, revealing or tragically star-crossed.

The pandemic has uprooted countless lives, thrusting honest strivers like Hashim into desperation and vagrancy. Homelessness is at its highest level since the Great Depression. A record 20,811 single adults slept in New York City shelters in December 2020. My exchange with Hashim laid this suffering bare on a human scale, and has haunted me ever since. With HOLD UP, I am inviting audiences to join me in confronting my privileged role in an unjust socio-moral system, while seeking to subvert harmful stereotypes.

I hope the film will awaken your curiosity, and get you thinking about what you would do in this situation. Certain (white) viewers may recognize uncomfortable but valuable truths, as I did. Rarely on screen, or in life, do we meet a character like Hashim, who brazenly challenges our collective inclination to avert our eyes, and demands that we really see him.