Talking With Tribeca
Fri., Dec. 21, 2007
Jon Gartenberg, short documentary and experimental film programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival, talks about what attracted him to "Native New Yorker":
"I am a film historian, and I've been watching silent films for a long time, and I can tell when something is very uniquely created, and that was my first response to Steve's film. It's not formulaic or routine or glossy at all. This is not a film that was going to get anyone an agent or a Hollywood deal; it's a very personal film, and that's the first thing that impressed me about it.
"The second thing I found intriguing was that, yes, it does have a 9/11 element to it, but you don't find that out until much later in the film, so that it takes on a much more intense emotional resonance. What's interesting about that is the fact that at Tribeca, which was founded coming out of 9/11, we still get films that refer to 9/11, but it's no longer the central or main premise of film. There's a certain subtlety that's emerged over time, and Steve's film is a perfect example of that.
"And the third thing that attracted me to 'Native New Yorker' is the fact that it fit into what I call the tradition of the city symphony films. Usually these were old, silent films that attempted to show the life of a city from morning to night. Steve's film is more structured geographically, from Upper Manhattan to Lower Manhattan, and so, to me, it's a city symphony functioning on a different level. And, also, it was made with this old, historical camera. It's a document of history created by a piece of history, if that makes sense."
