![]() ![]() This could be the only film that acts as an accurate document of the era. We got the people that did it, and we told the story the way we wanted. And so this is a rare film that will probably never be mimicked again. ![]() And B), no one’s going to get a fair shake in this story because of how controversial some of the players are. So to me, this was a huge opportunity to tell a story that I don’t think will ever be told like this again. They took what was seemingly the most impossible situation, and they just turned it around. I really do.īecause, if you think about it, the majority of what was done in the first four years, you had all these crazy ideas. It’s an era that I think is really fascinating, and personally I think the turnaround of New York City is America’s greatest turnaround. I had already been working on doing a project on the master builder Robert Moses, and so when this project came up, you know, this is an era that I remember. It’s there from the beginning in every phase of American development and expansion, and everything is in lockstep with how New York City worked. And so to me, the history of the city is the history of the country. This represents us everywhere in the entire world. And so to me, that’s what it represents.Īnd when you travel all over the world, you go to any country, people talk about wanting to go to New York. ![]() It’s a shining city on a hill, an example of American ingenuity at its finest. ![]() Even the very beginning of the United States itself: the battles fought there by George Washington and so on. It was the first city to be electrified, the subways, the Brooklyn Bridge-I mean, all of the things that either happened or culminated in New York City. I look for those things.Īnd of course, you know, having grown up in and out of the city, New York City to me is the pinnacle of American innovation. Somebody will say something and I’ll think oh, this is actually a better topic than I had planned. I have plenty of stories from every film I’ve ever made-serendipity, things happening that have changed the course of the film. It’s a very open-ended, cinematic art, whereas in feature films you plan everything before you go in. I’ve always loved documentaries, because it’s as close as you get to staying in the fine arts, being a sculptor-because you kind of don’t know what you’re walking into! You don’t know what people are going to say. in 2002, and I made a number of documentaries. And eventually I moved into documentaries when I moved back to Washington, D.C. Now video had become democratized by Apple and a couple other critical companies that allowed people to experiment with these new formats. And I was looking for new art materials to experiment with. And so my family left the East Coast, went to Saint Louis, but the whole country was in that shape, and so-at the turn the century, turn of the Millennium, I was going to art school. It’s a myth now if you’re 30 years old, you’ve only seen “nice New York.” But I very clearly remember bad New York, in my younger years. So I’m in this very interesting age range: I remember old New York. Matthew Taylor: I actually went to art school: I’m a sculptor and an art theorist, an art historian whose mother worked in Manhattan between 19. The American Mind: Tell me a little bit about your background as a filmmaker-what got you into this subject in particular? Gotham will be on streaming platforms March 21 it is currently available for pre-order on iTunes. Features Editor Spencer Klavan called up writer and director Matthew Taylor to discuss what he learned from the production process, and what New York’s history might reveal about how to turn city life around. The American Mind’s own Seth Barron is interviewed as an expert in the film. So a close look at the city’s renaissance during the 1990s-when a few politicians and analysts managed to bring about sudden and dramatic reform-can be instructive for those hoping to improve the next generation of urban life in America. New Yorkers, like many residents of the country’s biggest urban centers, are leaving in large numbers in search of safer places to live. In 2022, New York State saw the sharpest population decline in the country, much of it out of the city. These and other problems are returning in force. Crime, homelessness, and racial unrest are among the dysfunctions that have menaced residents and frightened away potential visitors from America’s largest metropolis. Gotham: The Rise and Fall of New York tells the story of New York City’s six mayors from 1966-2013. ![]()
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