25 Prospect Street-A Documentary Film

25 Prospect Street is the incredible story of how Valerie Jensen, an unshakable former school teacher transformed an abandoned bank into the Prospector Theater: a state-of-the-art movie palace that provides unprecedented opportunities for people with disabilities and a real shot at being successful and self-sufficient for the first time in their lives.

Director Kaveh Taherian tracks the emotional first year of the fledgling cinema, while following the missteps and giant leaps of the new recruits—many of whom are earning their first paychecks. Along the way, the growing distance between Valerie and her younger sister Hope—who has Down syndrome and was the original inspiration for the Prospector—proves an even greater challenge: Hope has goals of her own which don’t involve working at the theater, or even spending time with her sister.

25 Prospect Street offers a thoughtful and surprisingly humorous portrait of the Prospector team and the birth of a small business—one that is simultaneously on the brink of failure and on the cusp of serving as a new national model of how to put talented people to work.