DOC NYC: Films About New York City
October 01, 2012
DOC NYC’s lineup would be remiss without a few films that focused on the city it calls home, New York City.
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling it “the crime of the century.” But the truth about what really happened didn’t become clear until after the five had spent years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. This story of injustice finally gets the telling it deserves. The film recently made headlines when lawyers for New York City attempted to subpoena its outtakes for an ongoing lawsuit. A story whose aftershocks continue to shape the city, this promises to be one of the most high-profile documentaries of the year.
Expected to Attend: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David Mcmahon, and members of the Central Park Five
BUILDING BABEL WORLD PREMIERE. Building Babel tells the story of Sharif El-Gamal, developer of the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ in Lower Manhattan. With unfettered access to Sharif’s life and family over the course of two years, the film tracks his struggle to bring his idea of Park51, a controversial Muslim community center two blocks from the site of Ground Zero, to fruition. Building Babel is a portrait of American identity ten years on from September 11th—and of how Muslims struggle to take part in the idea of who we are as a nation. Where do the lines of community get drawn, and who gets to draw them?
PLIMPTON! STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF To some, George Plimpton was best known as the founder of America’s premiere literary magazine, The Paris Review. To others, he was a participatory sports journalist. Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himselfshows the many facets of this writer, editor, amateur sportsman and friend of the rich and famous. Using Plimpton’s own narration—along with thoughts and stories from friends, family and contemporaries—the film is a joyful celebration of a life lived fully, richly, strangely, and so variously that it’s hard to believe it was led by just one man.
Expected to Attend: Tom Bean, Luke Poling, Special Guests
MEN AT LUNCH US PREMIERE This remarkable documentary explores the untold story behind one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century: the 1932 photograph of workmen taking their lunch perched on a girder high above New York City on the 69th floor of Rockefeller Center. Part homage, part investigation, this is the beautiful tale of an American icon, an unprecedented race to the sky and the immigrant workers who built New York.
Expected to Attend: Seán Ó Cualáín
MORE THAN THE RAINBOW WORLD PREMIERE Stretching beyond the limits of the classic character study documentary, More Than the Rainbow not only chronicles the life and times of street photographer and former taxi driver Matt Weber, it becomes a vibrant conversation about the photographic medium, artistic expression, and New York City. Reflecting upon photography at the end of the analog age, the film is highlighted by gorgeous 35mm montage sequences set to the music of jazz legend Thelonious Monk. Weber’s extraordinary photographs will resonate long after the film is over.
Expected to Attend: Dan Wechsler, Matt Weber
DRIVERS WANTED Every day for the last 67 years, 90-year-old cab driver Johnnie “Spider” Footman has shown up for work at one of New York City’s most eclectic communities—the taxi garage across from the United Nations. The garage is a kind of a refugee camp in the heart of New York, a city where drivers have come for protection from human rights abuses, racism, and economic instability.But to be a cabbie demands reserves of patience and persistence, in the face of long hours, disrespectful customers, blinding blizzards and a host of other challenges.
Expected to Attend: Joshua Z Weinstein, Cabdrivers from the film, Jenni Morello
RADIOMAN US PREMIERE Featuring interviews with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Robin Williams, Jude Law, Josh Brolin, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey and more, Radioman tells the story of an extraordinary eccentric, the eponymous New Yorker who overcame homelessness and addiction to become an unlikely New York City movie legend, with over 100 small parts to his name. The film is a funny, heart-warming, insightful look into a memorable character full of contradictions, bitterness and hope.
Expected to Attend: Mary Kerr, Radioman
ZIPPER WORLD PREMIERE Small-time ride operator Eddie Miranda proudly runs a carnival contraption called the Zipper in the heart of Coney Island’s gritty amusement district. Eddie and his ride are driven away when the City of New York and an opportunistic real estate mogul lock horns over the future of the “People’s Playground.” A film about greed, politics, land use and public policy, and the battle over an American cultural icon, Zipper captures a market-driven world where growth often trumps preservation, and the Zipper may be only the beginning of what is lost.
Expected to Attend: Amy Nicholson
BIRDERS: THE CENTRAL PARK EFFECT Birders: The Central Park Effect reveals the extraordinary array of wild birds gracing Manhattan’s celebrated green and the equally colorful New Yorkers who schedule their lives around the rhythms of migration. The cast of characters includes acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen, a trombone technician, a fashion-averse teenager, and a bird-tour leader who’s recorded every sighting she’s made since the 1940s. Featuring spectacular wildlife footage capturing the changing seasons, this lyrical documentary transports the viewer to a dazzling world.
Expected to Attend: Jeffrey Kimball
