A love letter to New York on film

ONE OCTOBER is playing at 1:30 Saturday 4/8 at the 2017 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC.

A review by Allan Maurer 

For several years I lived 30 minutes away from midtown Manhattan by train and I took advantage of it every weekend and not infrequently evenings. A few years later, I lived on West 81^st Street, not far from Central Park, and I love the city still. Because New York City, like Hemingway’s Paris, is a movable feast.

One October, a documentary filmed in 2008, directed by Rachel Shuman and expertly filmed by David Sampliner in lush, evocative cinematography, follows WFMU reporter and commentator Clay Pigeon as he takes to the streets of New York City to interview people about their lives, their dreams, and their relationship with the city.

New York City is a kaleidoscope of ethnic, sexual, neighborhood and environmental diversity. Pidgeon finds interesting characters young and old, of multiple races, gay and straight, natives and recent arrivals. They include a mixed race couple that once drove taxis in the city, a transgender man, a young student, and a man selling Sarah Palin and Barrack Obama themed condoms.

Sampliner offers rich visual montages as interludes, evoking the city’s many colors, its surprising amount of greenery and wildlife, the squirrels in the parks, the birds overhead or in cages at an Asian shop, parades, and street fairs, sparkling fountains, children playing. Behind it all, always, although not in every shot, we see the city itself, its skyline in a variety of light, the way you see it if you live there.

While rising rents, people living on the street, and other problems are not ignored, they are not the focus of this film, which is a visual love letter to the city. Even the more downtrodden Pidgeon interviews seem to love the city, despite the hardships.

I’ll tell you this. It filled me with nostalgia for my years walking New York City’s endlessly fascinating streets.

Full Credits at Full Frame Site

Allan Maurer's film criticism and essays have appeared in OMNI, Starlog, Charlotte Entertainment, Charlotte's Best Magazine, and other publications.