Broadway by Light (William Klein - 1958)
“An experimental meditation on Times Square marquees and iconic advertising, Klein’s first film captures the concurrently seedy and dazzling aspects of New York’s Great White Way. Illustrative of Klein’s transition from photographer to filmmaker, Broadway by Light was declared by Orson Welles to be “the first film I’ve seen in which color was absolutely necessary. —calendar.walkerart.org”
80 Blocks from Tiffanys (1979), Dir.Gary Weiss
“The gangs in the South Bronx (about 80 blocks from Tiffany’s in more ways than one) are handled with kid gloves in this one-hour treatment by Gary Weis. The more articulate members of the Savage Nomads and Savage Skulls are interviewed while the less articulate minorities who incongruously brandish swastikas are glossed over. Aside from gang members venting about “social injustice” and cops, there are interviews with the police, a priest, and some community workers. In general, the documentary indicates that this one small part of the U.S. would gladly be engaged in a mini-civil war if left to ferment on its own. ~ Eleanor Mannikka,”
Gil Scott-Heron NY Is Killing Me
“N.Y.C” (No York City) by Rick Liss (1983)
This video by Rick Liss, with music by Laurie Anderson, takes us on a tour through five minutes of stop-motion vintage New York City in 1983.
Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work
Vivian Maier’s extraordinary photographs of Chicago and New York
Chicago nanny Vivian Maier died in 2009, leaving behind 100,000 negatives that no one but she had ever seen. Her work was discovered by chance, and now the photographs she took on her days off are being hailed as ‘ranking up there’ with the best in 20th-century street photography. Click here to see the blog
