This New York neighborhood is the star of a new film, but to the BIPOC community that calls Washington Heights home, it's always been famous.
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00:00Washington Heights is a sprawling immigrant community, and we find a family here, and we find a connection here.
00:06It's a big reminder of the power of connection in New York City.
00:22For a long time, I don't think people even talked about the Heights.
00:25People would actually come up with other terms to try to describe the area.
00:30There's a lot of representation of, like, downtown and some of the more, like, traditionally wealthy and white areas of New York City.
00:37We wanted to show how much incredible life there is above 96th Street, and how every Washington Heights story is also a New York story.
00:56I feel like in Washington Heights, everybody just treats you like family. Everybody is so nice.
01:02You can never find a dull block in Washington Heights. It's probably the best neighborhood in the city.
01:07I think a lot of people might be scared to go, like, above the Upper West Side, but there's so much culture, so much to do, so much good food.
01:15Really great energy in Washington Heights.
01:28I love the music. I love the people. I love the dancing.
01:31A lot of artists and a lot of culture and, you know, happy people.
01:37The city, it can feel very kind of scattered, and it definitely feels like a community there.
01:44I feel like there's definitely gentrification going on. There's a cafe that opened up on Broadway where all the white people like to hang out.
01:51It used to be just Hispanic and black people in my building. My mom, actually, she grew up in the same building.
01:58I feel like by the time I'm her age, if I want to continue to live in this building, it's going to be so different.
02:15I think it's really important for people to see in the Heights to be able to see representation, for Latinos to see Latinos on screen.
02:22People feel represented. They look at the big screen and they think, I can do that because they're seeing things that relate to their culture, their environment.
02:29So when you see it on a big screen, you have your dreams are more in front of you than far away from you.
02:35It just feels good to have some sort of limelight and highlight the best qualities of traditions and communities.
02:45They had the premiere uptown so that this love letter to this neighborhood is premiering in the neighborhood it's about.
02:56I think it shows a different side of New York City than not everybody gets to see. It's not Times Square. It's like the real New York City.
03:04The opening part of the movie with the shaved ice really highlights the summers.
03:08I feel like this is such a beautiful, obviously artistic insight into what the neighborhood is like.
03:13I also feel like for specifically the black community, there's too many trauma films and struggle films and it'll be nice to watch this.
03:20I want people to appreciate our culture and understand how joyful we've become.
03:25I feel good. I feel good that finally somebody's recognizing Washington Heights.
03:29So it's nice for people to be proud and happy that we are the Heights.
03:36Now when I tell people I'm from Washington Heights, they can actually know what that means and know what that is.
03:41And I don't have to say actually it's near Harlem.
03:43It's wonderful for people now to become more aware. And Lin-Manuel Miranda is the person to do it.