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March 17, 2008

New York: A Documentary Film

In terms of my DVD viewing habits, I have been on somewhat of a documentary kick as of late. I'm pacing my way through a Bob Dylan biography, while furiously tearing thru PBS's New York: A Documentary Film. I've found myself consumed by this 8-disc, 17-hour film.

First released in 1999 (in a pre-9/11 world), the documentary takes you from New York City's humble beginnings as a Dutch trading post in 1609, throughout the city's destruction and rebirth, and closing the film in a not-so-present day 1999. If you dig the history of American cities or simply love NYC, you should certainly Netflix this baby. Amazon stocks it, but it ain't cheap. I'm four discs down with four to go. You can expect to see a review of verbose proportions upon my completion.

For those now intrigued, I have posted a short clip taken from Part 1. In just over 7 minutes, you'll learn about Manhattan's road system, known as The Grid, and how it came to be. Enjoy! I sure did.

15 Comments

Thank you for sharing this. Very interesting documentary movie.

lewro

17 Mar 08 at 4:06am

I caught this when it originally aired and then bought the DVDs when they were released. Excellent documentary.

They've been sitting on my shelf for a while so its about time to watch it again. Perfect timing too since Lost will soon be on a short hiatus.

Brad Dielman

17 Mar 08 at 7:17am

truly amazing, thanks for sharing.

Yannic Walter

17 Mar 08 at 8:26am

If you want to further your NYC-geekness, check out The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher. It's all about the infrastructure of NYC, but made really interesting.

http://tinyurl.com/yv3ujr

Rene

17 Mar 08 at 8:54am

I've been hooked on PBS ART:21 documentaries. Especially the parts on Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen (RIP). Wanna borrow them?

Thommy Browne

17 Mar 08 at 11:34am

This looks super interesting. In da queue!

17 Mar 08 at 11:59am

I'm sure you've all heard of the Helvetica Documentary, if you haven't see it please do.

Also, Who Killed the Electric Car? is another amazing documentary that I've seen recently.

Bijan Berahimi

17 Mar 08 at 2:01pm

@Bijan, I just saw Helvetica this past Saturday night. I thought it was enjoyable. I admit to cracking up when Michael Bierut first talked, he was so intense.

Rene

17 Mar 08 at 2:07pm

I'll third the recommendation for the Helvetica documentary. You may be laughed at for watching a movie about a typeface. But it's quite interesting.

17 Mar 08 at 2:37pm

Adding to the queue, and to add to the Netflix suggestion box "End of Suburbia" documentary, its intense but a great watch for sure. I Heart Helvetica!

http://tinyurl.com/339h96

William Addington

17 Mar 08 at 6:25pm

dang this looks good – i just finished Civil War last month – documentaries are fun

Grant

18 Mar 08 at 1:54pm

Yeah I wouldn't recommend watching the Helvetica Documentary with friends. I've tried explaining type to them and why it's so important to me but they still think I'm weird to watch a film on typography.

Bijan Berahimi

18 Mar 08 at 3:16pm

On the NYC documentary kick, you should also look into Dark Days. Quote, "Documentarian Marc Singer focuses his camera on a group of homeless people who live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. By day, they scavenge for food on the mean streets of Manhattan. At night, they retreat to the tunnel, where they've built huts out of scrap metal, plastic and plywood. Amazingly, they have electricity, furniture, working kitchens and a sense of community many surface dwellers would envy."

Joshua Blankenship

31 Mar 08 at 1:57pm

Wow.

Had you posted a longer clip I might not get anything done at work today.

Kurt Cruse

7 Apr 08 at 8:53am

After seeing the clip I added the whole et to Netflix. We are about to get disk 4 and we really like it, thanks for the recommendation.

sdesocio

14 Apr 08 at 3:41pm

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The author

Brad Smith founded Neubix, a quirky Midwestern design studio, with Ryan Sims in 2001. Now residing in great metropolis of New York City, he Captains a ship named Virb. Brad is a fan of neat rows, sad songs and sharpies. He's a lover, not a fighter and still thinks Darth Vader was framed.

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