History up in Harlem

I thought films like Wall Street (1987) and the book (later, alas, film) of The Bonfire of the Vanities were part of our living history, but overtaken by current events they're museum pieces now, as New York faces the prospect of a retro-future right out of the opening scenes of the Depression-era King Kong or Man's Castle. So they're suitable for booking as part of Rent Control: NYC Documented and Imagined, a series of documentary and feature films that begins Sept. 27 and runs through next April 25 at the Maysles Cinema, the Harlem-based theater that is part of the institute dedicated to the legendary documentarians Albert and David Maysles. The neighborhood-set gangster picture Across 110th Street screens Oct. 27, but you can get in a New York state of mind and enjoy Bobby Womack's great title theme right now.