This eight-part, 16½-hour television event explores New York City's rich history as the premier laboratory of modern life. A sweeping narrative covering nearly 400 years and 400 square miles, it reveals a complex and dynamic city that has played an unparalleled role in shaping the nation and reflecting its ideals.
American Experience: New York - A Documentary Film
16 Stunden Geschichte New Yorks, gut erzählt und angenehm unaufgeregt inszeniert, dabei sehr detailliert und ausführlich.
Decided to watch this over the most recent Mercury retrograde. The boxset I got my hands on was actually ~800 minutes. I think this letterboxd catalog entry is incorrect. Nonetheless, you can imagine the thoroughness of this documentary, and yet it still felt sparse.
Ric Burns (brother to the more famous Ken) takes an almost People's history of New York perspective. It's Zinn-like in its study of the politics of the people post-Dutch settlement. There's very little periphery material surrounding the scientific and artistic contributions of the city. It's entire focus is on how people inhabited and controlled the infamous territory over the previous three centuries. It took Burns 4 years to make it, with supposedly 170 days worth of…
ok surprisingly nuanced and THE BEST ten hours i spent in quar .......... once u get past the ye olde colonial flute crap in the first couple of eps watchin dis doc was pure bliSS .., steel ! glass ! acceleration ! the awooga honk of a jalopy ! and i will admit i literally teared up when they quote f scott fitzgerald describing the disillusionment and alcoholism of his generation ...... we have just began the 20s after all ...
Proud to be a New Yorker man this city is so special
edit: maybe like a *little* bit too pro-Robert Moses for my taste but whatevs
Episode 1: The Country and the City (1609–1825)
"If you imagine an ordinary moment at an intersection in New York City, and there's a pause, say a street light, and some people are stopped and others in motion, some cars are stopped and others are in motion. If you would to put that in film terms, in a freeze-frame and hold everything for a second, you'd realize that there's a universe there of totally disparate intentions, everybody going about his or her business in the silence of their own minds, with everybody else in the street, in the time of day, in the architecture, in the quality of the light and the nature and the weather as this kind of…
Available on Amazon Prime Video as "American Experience: New York".
I love cities. Not just the architecture, and the beauty of a night-time cityscape, but the nature of them. Transportation, commerce, culture, innovation, housing, society. So let's learn about the most famous city in the world.
This miniseries, directed by Ric Burns (brother of Ken Burns), and narrated by David Ogden Stiers (who sounds nothing like Major Charles Emerson Winchester III) is an 8-part series (and 17.5 hours) covering the history of New York as well as its movers and shakers, from its start as a Dutch trading post to the seemingly never-ending construction of the 1800s to how Robert Moses ruined it for everyone. This miniseries was made in…
Filled to the brim with unlikable talking heads (i.e. proud new yorkers) but is totally worth the time investment for all of the file footage and the Robert Moses stuff. I wish one of these existed for every notable city.
Didn't finish this yet but I already know Fiorello LaGuardia throwing slot machines onto the bottom of the East River is probably the highlight.
Edit:
Finished on 7/30
