Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Larry Silverstein
This documentary consists of 5 short films, each less than 30 mins. in length. They're diverse human interest stories with the lone commonality being that they are set in NYC. Perhaps the best way to review the doc is to give a brief synopsis of each short film.1--C-Rock In the 1950's the Columbia University rowing team painted a huge letter "C" on the cliffs overlooking the Harlem River, in the Bronx. Since that time to the present, various generations of youths have dove from the cliffs to the river below, even assigning different spots with names depending on their height and degree of difficulty.2--Taxi Garage Amazingly, I quickly realized that the cab company featured in the film was one I had worked for decades before, when I lived in NYC. The same owner, Stan, is still there and going strong while demonstrating still that he's quite the personality. A part-time 90-year-old driver is featured as well as a new Chinese émigré, who's "learning the ropes" on his first day on the job. Brought back a ton of memories for me.3--One Track Mind Tells the fascinating story of Philip Ashforth Coppola, who has devoted his life to researching, documenting, and illustrating the designs and architecture of every stop in the NYC Subway System. He has already produced 4 incredibly detailed books on the subject, and at the time of the filming was working on a fifth volume.4--A Son's Sacrifice This film focuses on a slaughterhouse, in Queens, owned and operated by Imran Udin, who gave up a successful career as an advertising executive to take over the family business, A good portion of the movie concentrates on an upcoming Muslim holiday where Qabani is performed, ( a live animal, like a lamb or goat, is sacrificed to Allah). Although I understand the traditions of this holiday, it was extremely difficult to watch those segments of the film where live animals were chosen and slaughtered at the shop.5--Black Cherokee This film centers on Otis Houston Jr., who is employed as a maintenance man at a gym, but also for many years has been a performance artist along the highways in Harlem. He has developed some stunning characters and presentations, has been written up by various media outlets, and constantly acknowledges the supportive honks of passing motorists as he performs. Overall, I found this 5 film documentary to be diverse and engaging. If you like these types of human interest stories, you may very well like at least some of these short films, but just to say it's not going to please viewers looking for constant action in their movies.
