
This film is a portrait of New York in the 1980s by famed photographer Steven Siegel, including footage of the subways, the parks, Times Square and other neighborhoods. The film is narrated by teenagers of that era.

This film is a portrait of New York in the 1980s by famed photographer Steven Siegel, including footage of the subways, the parks, Times Square and other neighborhoods. The film is narrated by teenagers of that era.
1986-01-01
7
7.5Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
7.9Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
7.0A look at the history of the comic book publication that launched such legendary characters as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
6.7Morning reveals New York harbor, the wharves, the Brooklyn Bridge. A ferry boat docks, disgorging its huddled mass. People move briskly along Wall St. or stroll more languorously through a cemetery. Ranks of skyscrapers extrude columns of smoke and steam. In plain view. Or framed, as through a balustrade. A crane promotes the city's upward progress, as an ironworker balances on a high beam. A locomotive in a railway yard prepares to depart, while an arriving ocean liner jostles with attentive tugboats. Fading sunlight is reflected in the waters of the harbor. The imagery is interspersed with quotations from Walt Whitman, who is left unnamed.
6.4The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
7.0Photographer Estevan Oriol and artist Mister Cartoon turned their Chicano roots into gritty art, impacting street culture, hip hop and beyond.
7.0Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.
6.8This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
6.5A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.
6.8This documentary about the culture of intense cinephilia in New York City reveals the impassioned world of five obsessed movie buffs. These human encyclopedias of cinema see two to five films a day, and from 600 to 2,000 films per year. This is the story of their lives, their memories, their unbending habits and the films they love.
7.0A documentary on legendary movie-poster artist Drew Struzan.
7.4The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
7.0Martin Scorsese’s portrait of writer and social commentator Fran Lebowitz, celebrated for her sharp wit and observations on modern life. Filmed at New York’s Waverly Inn and intercut with archival footage and interviews, the documentary captures Lebowitz’s distinctive worldview through her spontaneous monologues and public appearances.
7.0Acclaimed for his unfiltered reporting and deadpan humor, Andrew Callaghan brings his gonzo style reporting to the undercurrents that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot. As one of the best-known and hardest working journalists of his generation, the 25-year-old ventures on a wild RV journey through America to take the pulse of a divided nation.
6.5A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.
6.2SEDUCED AND ABANDONED combines acting legend Alec Baldwin with director James Toback as they lead us on a troublesome and often hilarious journey of raising financing for their next feature film. Moving from director to financier to star actor, the two players provide us with a unique look behind the curtain at the world's biggest and most glamourous film festival, shining a light on the bitter-sweet relationship filmmakers have with Cannes and the film business. Featuring insights from directors Martin Scorsese, 'Bernando Bertolucci' and Roman Polanski; actors Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain and a host of film distribution luminaries.
6.6A comedic, brutally honest documentary following self-destructive TV writer Dan Harmon as he takes his live podcast on a national tour.
7.3Performance artist Marina Abramovic prepares for a major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
7.1A presentation of a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical 'life ground' attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a 'Resource-Based Economy'.
7.5A documentary chronicling Queen and Lambert's incredible journey since they first shared the stage together on "American Idol" in 2009.
4.0It's hard to define her. And that's precisely the way Lady Gaga wants it. Yes, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta had a plan to remake herself into an outrageous icon. It began with Italian Catholic New York City roots then expanded to glam pop, electronic rock, burlesque and even jazz alongside nonagenarian crooner, Tony Bennett. Piano lessons began at age four and taught Stefani to create music by ear. There were lead roles in high school standard Broadway show productions then open mic nights at downtown clubs and 1 1/2 years of formal training at N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. Even a rape at age nineteen slowed but did not stop the mission that would yield over 200 million combined album and song sales. No wonder that Gaga's fans call her "Monster Mother." An outrageous fashion sense has wrought costumes made of plastic bubbles and raw meat. While elaborate videos and spectacular stage sets are the norm,
6.0A look at the world of US writer Paul Auster, on the occasion of the publication of his new novel, an exploration of human identity and the soul of New York, the city that Auster has portrayed as no one else has ever done.
4.0The history of Europeans in North America, from the arrival of Columbus in 1492 to the business success of German immigrants such as Heinz, Strauss or Friedrich Trumpf, Donald Trump's grandfather. During the 19th century, thirty million people — Germans, Irish, Scots, Russians, Hungarians, Italians and many others — left the old continent, fleeing poverty, racism or political repression, hoping to make a fortune and realize the American dream.
7.0Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond spent three months in 1976 riding along with patrol officers in the 44th Precinct of the South Bronx, which had the highest crime rate in New York City at that time.
5.0This is Poe and Král's first effort, shot on small-gauge stock, before their more well-known endeavor The Blank Generation (1976) came to be. A "DIY" portrait of the New York music scene, the film is a patchwork of footage of numerous rock acts performing live, at venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the dive bars of Greenwich Village and, of course, CBGB.
7.5Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The film is a controversy on democracy. Is our society really democratic? Can everyone be part of it? Or is the act of being part in democracy dependent to the access on technology, progression or any resources of information, as philosophers like Paul Virilio or Jean Baudrillard already claimed?
8.0Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
3.6The voices of five gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape that is the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower campus.
6.4This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world.
10.0William Hart McNichols is a world renowned artist, heralded by Time magazine as "among the most famous creators of Christian iconic images in the world". As a young Catholic priest from 1983-1990 he was immersed in a life-altering journey working as a chaplain at St. Vincent's AIDS hospice in New York city. It was during this time that he became an early pioneer for LGBT rights within the Catholic church. "The Boy Who Found Gold" is a cinematic journey into the art and spirit of William Hart McNichols. The film follows his colorful life as he crosses paths with presidents, popes, martyrs, and parishioners, finding an insightful lesson with each encounter. McNichols' message as a priest, artist and man speaks to the most powerful element of the human spirit: Mercy.
6.3Reporter Clay Pigeon interviews New Yorkers in October, 2008.
6.8This mini documentary features a rare interview with infamous graffiti artist Banksy, delving into how he started out as a graffiti writer up to his shift to gallery art, installations, CDs, and more. Til this day only a hand full of people know his real identity, such as friends appearing here: 3D of Massive Attack, Damien Hirst, and others.
Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.
7.1Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.
0.0In the local New York City elections of 2021, several city council districts had unusually crowded primary races. This film is a document of the final weeks of the most crowded city council race, where 15 Democratic candidates were on the ballot.
Meryl Streep conducts us to a trip to New York City as presented in many films during the 20th Century, and how its cultural importance and impact are important to viewers. With a comprehensive gathering of clips from films between 1910's and 1990's, the documentary presents the mandatory classic films that presented the city and its multiple cultural variations, situations and the great stories filmed there. Actors and directors also discuss how they view the city in reality and also through the pictures.
5.9Set in New York City, the epicenter of a phenomenon cropping up in communities across the United States, "Nursery University" reveals the oddly competitive process of nursery school admissions. The film tells the story of five families attempting to place their toddlers in preschool classrooms that have limited space and high price tags.
4.8Shot over the course of 18 months in New York City's Lower East Side, METHADONIA sheds light on the inherent flaws of legal methadone treatments for heroin addiction by profiling eight addicts, in various stages of recovery and relapse, who attend the New York Center for Addiction Treatment Services (NYCATS).
5.9A portrait of the brilliant American writer Truman Capote (1924-84) and the New York high society of his time.