Landlords and screens: using documentary film to expose organized predatory landlording

Abstract This study seeks to expand the interest of organized crime researchers in property by focusing on organized predatory landlording. The aim is twofold. First, we set out to demonstrate that some instances of this business can be adequately conceptualized as organized crime, which has specific implications for understanding the operation of the groups involved as well as the possibilities of their social control. Second, we contend that criminal law alone is insufficient to regulate organized predatory landlording and that researchers should take advantage of non-textual media, such as documentary films, if they want to publicly contribute to tackling this harmful phenomenon. In doing so, we draw on the documentary film The Impossibility , which tells the story about the resistance of tenants of an apartment building in Czechia against their exploitation and harassment by the landlord group. The film is relevant material for two reasons. First, it uniquely details the lived sensory experience of tenants who attempt to criminalize their landlords’ conduct, exposing the ways in which the latter achieve their illicit income. Second, we participated as expert consultants in the production of the documentary and are still involved in advocacy activities to this day, with the ultimate goal of enacting policy changes that will establish a more effective system of regulation of organized predatory landlording. It is on the basis of this experience that we argue that joining forces as researchers and filmmakers represents a promising avenue for public engagement.