Tag Archives: New York

The 9/11 Chronology (series)

No narration. No interviews. No hindsight. Just the footage,audio, and news coverage that captured 9/11 as it unfolded. Through real-time footage, emergency radio, news bulletins, and raw field recordings, we experience the growing confusion and rising tension as the world starts to realise that something is deeply wrong. This series is not a traditional documentary. It is an actuality-based, real-time reconstruction — an unfiltered archive, compiled entirely from authentic sources recorded on the day itself. No commentary. No retrospective analysis. Nothing added, and nothing taken away.

The Archive Cut spans 20 episodes, tracing the entire day from the first takeoff to the final moments of collapse and chaos — moment by moment, as it was seen and heard. This project is intended as a historical and educational record, preserving the timeline and tone of the day with precision and respect. Whether you’re revisiting the events or encountering them for the first time, The 9/11 Chronology presents an immersive and sobering experience — a window into the reality of 9/11 through the eyes and ears of those who lived it.

The Fall and Rise of New York

The transformation and revival of New York City from 1990 to 2013 is one of the most remarkable stories in urban history.

Many are oblivious to New York’s true history – a failing city that by 1990 had over 2,200 murders, 93,000 violent robberies and 147,000 car thefts annually with a declining middle class, depressed property values and embarrassingly low educational attainment.

But then something happened.  It was not the result of broader social or economic forces. Instead, it was an intellectual paradigm shift and revolution that only came about because of political leadership, a new set of ideas about governing and established tradition being questioned and changed at the grassroot level.

Today, the world sits at a unique moment in urban city history. Cities are falling apart. Rampant homelessness, increasing crime, mounting drug use, unaffordable housing – once a beacon of innovation and success, today many cities are failing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. New York City faced worst challenges in its past and managed to overcome them.

More than ever, the world needs to know the story of New York’s revival and to understand how this happened. As the 400th anniversary of New York approaches in 2024, we find out what was behind the Fall and Rise of New York.

Weird Craigslist Jobs to Pay NYC Rent

Will Tilghman tries to make his monthly rent of $965 by working weird jobs posted on the gigs section of New York Craigslist. After staging a photoshoot for a restaurant, screening a bad horror movie, trying a new deodorant, writing a bio for a nice mom, handing out newspapers, doing a timely impersonation of Lord Varys from “Game of Thrones”, and more, Will goes deep into the world of Craigslist to see if he can actually pay his rent by doing odd-jobs.

Martha: A Picture Story

Martha Cooper is an unexpected icon of the street art movement – a tiny, grey-haired figure running alongside crews of masked graffiti artists.

In the 1970’s, as the boroughs of New York City burned, she worked as a photographer for the New York Post, seeking images of creativity and play where others saw crime and poverty. As a result, she captured some of the first images of New York graffiti, at a time when the city had declared war on this new culture. Martha and her co-author Henry Chalfant compiled these images into the book Subway Art. However, the commercial failure of the book forced Martha to leave graffiti behind, moving on to document many other hidden cultures of New York.

20 years later Martha discovers she has become a legend of the graffiti world – a culture that has now exploded into a global movement. Subway Art became one of the most sold – and stolen – art books of all time, photocopied and shared by graffiti artists for decades.

At 75 years of age, Martha finds herself navigating a culture vastly changed.The small community born from struggle and adversity, has grown into a commercial industry fuelled by the rise of social media. Now every new piece of street art is immediately uploaded, and crowds line up for selfies in front of popular works. Martha struggles to find her place in this new world, driven by a passion for capturing the creativity that helps people rise above their environment.

Muslims: Victims of Espionage

After the events of 9/11, propaganda and espionage created by the U.S. Government has provoked a hostile environment towards Muslims or towards any person believed professes the faith of Islam in that country.

Thousands of people each day are dominated by a twisted and manipulative message, which is getting its purpose: hatred and racial segregation.

Espionage, false evidence, fictitious testimonies, innocent victims and rigged trials have caused hundreds of Muslims to be in prison in the United States for crimes they did not commit.

This documentary is the story of innocent Muslims victims of espionage and Islamophobia in the New York City.

Diary of a Times Square Thief

Diary of a Times Square Thief documents the search for the writer of a mysterious diary. This manuscript describes the adventures of a young man who left the Midwest to go to New York and fulfil his dream of becoming a writer and his subsequent decline. The diary, which the filmmaker found on EBay, gives a frank and confronting account of the author’s downfall before ending abruptly, the last pages being cut out with a knife.

As director Bense attempts to track down the characters described in the diary, a picture emerges of a lost generation – the underbelly of New York’s flophouse underclass which is both grim and poetic. Diary of a Times Square Thief paints a vivid picture of the world famous Times Square area when it was still a dramatic and brutal urban jungle. Weaving intimate portraits of some of the colourful characters described in the diary, the fate of the talented but failed author emerges, as does the value of chasing dreams.