October 1, 2025 — After its sold-out premiere followed by a week of screenings at the Dreamland, Room for Us? is now available to stream online. The film shares islanders’ voices and the creative solutions shaping Nantucket’s housing future. Don’t miss this chance to gain a fuller understanding of the issue while engaging with the stories that inspire our work.

Room For Us? is directed by investigative journalist Jasper Craven and award-winning filmmaker Patrick Kennedy. The film weaves together stories from year-round islanders struggling to find stable housing on an island where the median home price has climbed to $3.73 million. With emotional candor, the documentary amplifies the voices of workers, families, and advocates, putting a human face on Nantucket’s housing crisis.

What sets this film apart is not only its intimate storytelling, but the hopeful path it traces: how organizations like Housing Nantucket are working together to create a “parallel real estate market”—a protected inventory of homes made available to year-round residents through deed restrictions, income qualifications, and nonprofit stewardship. These homes serve as an anchor for the essential workers who keep Nantucket running—teachers, tradespeople, healthcare professionals—and help preserve the island as a vibrant, livable community year-round.

“There’s a real movement happening here to build a parallel real estate market of homes exclusively for year-round residents,” said Anne Kuszpa, Executive Director of Housing Nantucket. “These solutions already exist and are expanding. This film brings that effort into focus, and we’re thrilled to share it with the community.”

Following the screening, Craven and Kennedy took part in a Q&A session alongside local housing advocates. The moderated discussion welcomed audience participation and focused on fostering awareness, sharing experiences, and inspiring collaborative action.

“We’re so deeply grateful to the many Nantucket residents who trusted us to tell this vital story,” said Craven. “I’m hopeful that the many stories and insights we captured can spur additional conversations about housing—on the island, across the Cape, and beyond.”

About the Filmmakers and Semester Cinema

Room For Us? was produced through the 2024 iteration of Semester Cinema, a unique Vermont-based production program that brings together professional filmmakers and college students to tell powerful human stories. Every two years, the program selects 45 students from over a dozen colleges and pairs them with 30 film industry mentors to collaboratively create two full-length feature films—one narrative and one documentary—for national release.

The program’s 2024 cohort came to Nantucket to explore timely, place-based stories. The students quickly identified housing as a pervasive issue. The result is a documentary that is both cinematic and grounded, capturing not only the urgency of the island’s housing crisis but also the heart of a community rising to meet it.

This screening was just the beginning. Click here to purchase tickets to showtimes at the Dreamland Sept 19-25.  Stay tuned for other upcoming dates and times!