"New York: A Documentary Film" (1999) TV series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

14 November 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History

Plot:

Ric Burns (brother of the famed documentarian Ken Burns) presents an exhaustive history of New York...

Plot Keywords:

City | New York City | Italian American | Irish American | Tragedy

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

David Ogden Stiers	...	Narrator (7 episodes, 1999)
John Steele Gordon	...	Himself (7 episodes, 1999)
Kenneth Jackson	...	Himself (7 episodes, 1999)
Robert A.M. Stern	...	Himself (7 episodes, 1999)
Mike Wallace	...	Himself (historian) (7 episodes, 1999)
Philip Bosco		(6 episodes, 1999)
Brendan Gill	...	Himself (6 episodes, 1999)
David McCullough	...	Himself (6 episodes, 1999)
Rev. Calvin O. Butts III	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
Robert A. Caro	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
Pete Hamill	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
Alfred Kazin	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
George Plimpton		(5 episodes, 1999)
Luc Sante	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
Craig Steven Wilder	...	Himself (5 episodes, 1999)
Marshall Berman	...	Himself (4 episodes, 1999)
Daniel Czitrom	...	Himself (4 episodes, 1999)
Paul Giamatti	...	Narrator (4 episodes, 1999)
Rudolph W. Giuliani	...	Himself (4 episodes, 1999)
Fran Lebowitz	...	Herself (4 episodes, 1999)
Robert Sean Leonard		(4 episodes, 1999)
Peter Quinn	...	Himself (4 episodes, 1999)
Callie Thorne	...	Voice (4 episodes, 1999)
Eli Wallach		(4 episodes, 1999)
Caleb Carr	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Keith David		(3 episodes, 1999)
Allen Ginsberg	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Spalding Gray	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
James Hazeldine		(3 episodes, 1999)
David Levering Lewis	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Philip Lopate	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Daniel Patrick Moynihan	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Frances Sternhagen		(3 episodes, 1999)
John Kuo Wei Tchen	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Donald Trump	...	Himself (3 episodes, 1999)
Carol Willis	...	Herself (3 episodes, 1999)
Ruth J. Abram	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Bella Abzug	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Thomas Bender	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Joshua Freeman	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Janeane Garofalo	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Frances Golden	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Cheryl Greenberg	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Josh Hamilton		(2 episodes, 1999)
Ada Louise Huxtable	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Margo Jefferson	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Frederic Kimball	...	Voice (2 episodes, 1999)
Edward I. Koch	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
David Margulies	...	Voice (2 episodes, 1999)
Frank Pellegrino	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Anna Quindlen	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Susan Sarandon		(2 episodes, 1999)
Gretchen Sullivan Sorin	...	Herself (2 episodes, 1999)
Ray Suarez	...	Himself (2 episodes, 1999)
Harris Yulin		(2 episodes, 1999)

Also Known As:

American Experience: New York - A Documentary Film (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

600 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

New York Historical Society

Trivia:

Filming took nearly four years and over 170 days including interviews, shooting archival footage, and New York landscapes.

Quotes:

voice: From the ruins, lonely and inexplicable as the sphinx, rose the Empire State Building and, just as it had been a tradition of mine to climb to the Plaza Roof to take leave of the beautiful city, extending as far as eyes could reach, so now I went to the roof of the last and most magnificent of towers...

Movie Connections:

Features In the Street (1948)

A Masterpiece

I happened along this documentary one Sunday afternoon after 9-11 in 2001. I originally was intrigued because I am a New Yorker but also because, sadly, I really didn't have as much knowledge about this great city that I live in as I should have and of course also because it was soon after that tragic day in September and I wanted to watch anything and everything relating to that day. To my surprise it didn't have anything with regard to 9-11, being completed before 2001. I continued to watch because I wanted to know more about the history of my city. Sure I knew about the Dutch, about the English taking over, the changing of the name but this film taught me a lot about people I didn't know much if anything about - Fiorello Laguardia, Al Smith, Walt Whitman - and whereas I knew about Lincoln and FDR to name two, my knowledge about their relation to New York was pitiful.

Anyone who has any desire to gain some knowledge about New York should watch this. I picked up the CD today because the songs on it are amazing - very deep and very emotional. Anyone who enjoys history will probably enjoy this film. I got it as a Christmas present in 2001 and it's been one of the best presents I've ever received.