Filmmaker Tristan Wheeler has made *Toronto Apartment*, a dark comedy about a tenant who sublets his flat by the hour to survive Toronto’s high rents. The $10,000 film uses an absurd premise to highlight how the housing crisis can restrict working-class artists’ ability to sustain creative careers.

Wheeler wrote, directed and stars as Lock O’Hara, whose breakup leaves him unable to afford rent alone and facing eviction. His renters include a platonic dating group, a feminist book club and a supposed knitting group, while the story questions whether he is helping a community or exploiting the same market pressures; the film was shot in 2024 and premiered in Canada at Toronto’s Paradise Theatre.