NYC Weights and Measures

My film is a simple gathering of New York City street footage.  It was shot with a spring-wound 16mm Bolex on, above, and below the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes footage of the ticker tape parade for astronaut John Glenn.

Sometimes I just wander around with my camera -- I like to see what comes around the corner, and sometimes I just like the corner itself. Due to supposed “national security concerns,” recent prohibitions are restricting what can be filmed in New York and other locales. While shooting from a train window in 2005, my film was confiscated and turned over to the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the F.B.I. This piece, which once might have been seen as strictly “lyrical,” is now also a reflection on these issues. --Jem Cohen

"Like a floating, drifting piece of ticker tape, the film makes its way across boroughs and time to explore New York City's many moods, from loud and relentless to grave and dreamy." --WNET (Reel New York)