The relationship between tenant and landlord is a unique one, and although the person who owns your apartment can be often just a name on a check, sometimes those bonds extent far beyond just dropping off a boatload of money on the first of the month.
For Daniel Navarro, Miguel Gutierrez was that type of landlord. Navarro found Gutierrez’s Western Addition apartment on Craigslist in 2017, and when he went to check it out, he was sold.
“We met Miguel, and he had this massive snow globe that he’d built from scratch from the inside of his living room facing outside of the street, and he attached a leafblower inside this massive bubble that was blowing cotton balls in the air. And I was like, 'This will be the place that we will be living,'" says Navarro.
When Navarro’s partner got into graduate school on the East Coast, the two decided to leave San Francisco after 10 years. They wanted to find a special way to say goodbye, and Navarro realized that his love letter to the city would be a short documentary about Gutierrez, his upstairs neighbor and landlord. Navarro, who works primarily in the technology marketing industry, gathered a team of friends with professional film experience, and the result is a beautiful 13-minute documentary titled "My Neighbor, Miguel," shot on 16 mm film. It's now available to watch for free online.
Miguel Gutierrez is featured in a new documentary called "My Neighbor, Miguel," showcasing his quirky history as a Western Addition landlord.
Courtesy of Daniel NavarroAn artist and costume designer with deep ties in San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, Gutierrez said he earned the nickname "Little Butterfly" as a kid due to his "feminine" nature, which he adopted as a badge of pride and a tattoo along his shoulder blade. He moved here in the mid-1980s, the day before Halloween, and immediately went out partying in costume.
“My life ended up being a costume party ever since,” says Gutierrez in the film.
Archival footage from the GLBT Historical Society Museum and the Bay Area Reporter shows some of Gutierrez’s vibrant costume work over the years, and current-day views inside his home show a lifetime’s worth of art he’s created and accumulated. Many of the pieces are hanging mobiles that extend out of his apartment window over the sidewalk. Navarro’s favorite thing about the art was its sense of history. The costumes were part of the massive parties of lore in the Castro, but also were used as fundraisers for his community during the AIDS epidemic.
Miguel Gutierrez is featured in a new documentary called "My Neighbor, Miguel," showcasing his quirky history as a Western Addition landlord.
Courtesy of Daniel Navarro“That led into the game changer of the story that we told. When he shared with me that he was HIV positive and had been living that way for a couple decades, and he wasn’t sure why he’s still around … his past plays into his art, which plays into his present and future,” says Navarro.
Although Gutierrez is a very private person, he agreed to give Navarro mostly unfettered access to his life, but still managed to keep some details a mystery. For instance, his current and previous professions are, well, ambiguous at best (he described them to Navarro as “business jobs”). Gutierrez received the house from his former partner that passed away, and he lives the retired lifestyle of an artist, buoyed by notoriously expensive San Francisco rent checks.
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Navarro filmed the project in the fall and completed it in the spring, right around the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Much of the team was engaged with protesting during the summer, so the film sat on the shelf until November. Navarro wanted Gutierrez to see the film before anyone else and flew back to San Francisco for a surprise private screening at the Roxie. The team also had vague plans to submit to film festivals, but as that world is on pause, the main means of distribution is through Vimeo, which has chosen it as a staff pick.
Miguel Gutierrez is featured in a new documentary called "My Neighbor, Miguel," showcasing his quirky history as a Western Addition landlord.
Courtesy of Daniel NavarroNavarro hopes the film serves as an inspiration for San Franciscans, and a reminder of the importance of investing and bolstering community, he says.
“As much as it’s a story about him and a love letter to S.F., one of my greatest hopes is that young people, like my peers, think about what their contributions to the city are. S.F. didn’t become what it is by taking. It is what it is because people like Miguel have constantly contributed to their communities,” says Navarro.
