Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection
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Brave New York2004
BRAVE NEW YORK is a free-form documentary that loosely chronicles the last twelve years of intense change in the East Village "hood." From the reopening of a newly curfewed Tompkins Square Park and Wigstock in '92 to the destruction of the cherished Loisaida Community Gardens, beyond the yuppie invasions of the "dot com" years to the present era, indelibly stamped with post 9/11 grief, this durable, lusty neighborhood survives in spite of a real estate gold rush that has excluded all but the well-to-do. The movie's main voices are those of the artists and street people whose wisdom and commentaries upon the dominant culture give us pause amidst the speedy approach of a "Brave New World."
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1 member likes this review
this is a wonderful film capturing the sadness and happiness of every city that forever "once was better".
Poster & Images
Member Reviews (3)
this is a wonderful film capturing the sadness and happiness of every city that forever "once was better".
1 member likes this review
This is the purest form of documentary for me: just montage that just threads together with rhythm and occasional repeated motifs such as the moon, drifting music, and repeated personages. No boring narration. Just on-the-street interviews. Behold all the squalid, yet touchingly human facets of New York City that you were afraid to look right in the eye, conveniently captured on-the-fly, behind the objective lens of a camera.
Important glimpse of "old, last legs of LES" and during Sep 11 but perhaps a little too heavy on the street poetry at times while not explaining what was changing and how fast and radically those things were doing so that a whole group of people who really couldn't easily relocate ended up homeless and destitute in their own neighborhood and leading to NYC's shameful homeless and drug addicted transient epidemic. Having said that, it definitely depicts the change and strain of that shift from old NYC to Starbucks and higher end eateries establishing themselves in an unwelcoming neighborhood.