Movietime in Manhattan: Whom You Know Highly Recommends KOCH the Movie Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
Ed Koch in the office of his campaign manager, David Garth, September 1977. As seen in KOCH, a film by Neil Barsky. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo- The New York Post
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Start spreading the news, this is the movie to see...if you want to be a part of it, you've got to know how New York today became the way it is and Mayor Koch is entitled to quite a bit of credit! Recently we republished his interview - he was featured on Whom You Know as a Mover and Shaker - and also we asked other Movers & Shakers how they remembered him. We found this film highly enlightening as the Koch years in New York were far before our time. Peachy first lived in New York early on in the Giuliani years...and she is not a rough and tumble kind of person! The New York in 1977 enhanced our appreciation for all that it is today, and only Mayor Koch himself could really know what it took to achieve the level of transformation, but this movie takes a tremendous stab at visualizing it all for the audience. We were actually quite shocked at what New York once looked like. The housing transformation is really remarkable. On a personal note, we really loved seeing him celebrate the Jewish holidays with his family.
Mayor Koch was a hero from the time of World War Two until his passing. We can tell you first hand he was a straight shooter which we highly admire, and he is the only Mayor that has ever answered all our emails and for that we are eternally grateful.
The cinematography is captivating and the music is swinging too with Burning Down the House playing-we can only imagine how much fun it must have been to have had the chance to go out in New York then, but we are thankful for higher degree of safety there is now thanks to Mayor Koch and his successors. Most of the movie is him talking to those interviewing him, and commentary on him from others along with amazing historic footage. He was a liberal with sanity, which is absolutely the best kind of liberal to have.
The 1977 race had 7 candidates, and after the blackout on 7/13/77 with much anarchy and looting, Candidate Ed Koch put his anti-looting, pro-capital punishment foot down and got voters to put their votes up-for him. Especially compared to his competition, Ed Koch was a strong sunshine and even more important, a do-er. He didn't just talk about ideas: he executed them. (Except his idea of getting married in Gracie Mansion...) Mayor Koch was the ultimate cheerleader of New York. He walked with the people during the 1980 Transit Strike, saying: "We're not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees."
Who was Mayor Ed Koch?
He was jovial.
He was smart.
He was comfortable saying NO.
He was fiscally tough.
He was pro-business.
He was an opportunist.
And we were glad to see him enjoying his orange juice in this movie that he told us was his favorite drink.
When he was seven, he moved from the Bronx to Newark (Newark airport: read our interview he'd like that named after him too) and his family were furriers. At age 10/11 he started working in a hat check with his parents in the coat check.
What did we love in the movie specifically?
We liked seeing Mayor Koch on the Merry-Go-Round.
We loved seeing Mayor Koch with Big Bird.
We really loved seeing him on SNL in 1983 - there was no way Peachy would have been allowed to see that or stay up that late in 1983.
We adored the Gracie Mansion party in honor of his bridge. And we loved how he quoted The Great Gatsby, which happens to be Peachy's all-time favorite book:
"The city seen from the Queensboro bridge is always the city seen for the first time in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
This movie has low points as well including suicide, corruption, bid rigging and some people saying unkind, ungrateful things about him. It mentioned his stroke and when finding out he may have lost his voice, Mayor Koch said: "For me not to be able to talk would be a fate worse than death." Also quite low was the 4th term in 1989 that did not happen. He told his supporters then: "Go home now and know that you waged an extraordinary battle and that I'm eternally grateful to you and will never forget you. Good night."
But did he miss being Mayor?
He said: "People threw me out and now the people must be punished!"
And as far as death goes, he wanted to be in a bustling cemetery. And we expect he is enjoying the rewards above now.
Ed Koch made New York a place we all want to be today and we are lucky to have had him as a Mayor and all New Yorkers should be grateful and should go see Koch the movie! We regret that we can't ask him what he thought of it now...
Whom You Know Highly Recommends Koch, the film and the person! We know you are reading from heaven and you like movie reviews...All New Yorkers local and distant need to see this film and keep Mayor Koch alive in your heart and in your prayers. If you look closely, you'll see his spirit all over New York.
***
Koch
A film by Neil Barsky
Former Mayor Ed Koch is the quintessential New Yorker. Still ferocious, charismatic,
and hilariously blunt, the now 88-year-old Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a
down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time
filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate
and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the
town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive
1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark
housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through
candid interviews and rare archival footage, Koch thrillingly chronicles the personal and
political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Making a documentary about Ed Koch was an easy call. To this day, I cannot think of a New Yorker as
popular or as polarizing. Ed Koch’s story is in many ways the story of the city.
I was born in the Bronx in 1958 and moved to the suburbs when I was four. When I returned to the city to
attend the Walden School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, I was like a freed bird. New York in those
days was dangerous, dirty and utterly dysfunctional; it was also magical. For most of Koch’s mayoralty
(1978–1989), I was either a student or a young reporter, and I would have given a kidney to cover City
Hall for one of the city’s major newspapers. It was not to be; and on some level this film is my way of
making up for the lost opportunity.
Koch proved a perfectly complex character. He is funny and he can be a bully; he is charming and also
narcissistic. He has a much-speculated-about private life which he doesn’t mind being asked about, so
long as you don’t mind being told to mind your own business. He is a man surrounded by friends and
admirers, and he is a man alone.
Once we started shooting the film, it became clear just how personally compelling Koch—now 87—still is.
He tirelessly hopped from campaign stop to campaign stop, from speaking engagement to engagement.
He bared his teeth at anyone who challenged him in a public forum; he still shined brightly when he was
the center of attention. And he cannot walk down a New York City street without being approached by an
admirer.
Shooting the film went relatively smoothly. I had an ace director of photography in Tom Hurwitz, a
relentless perfectionist who fearlessly kept his camera as close to Koch as possible, literally and f
iguratively. Thanks to my journalism background, I was relatively comfortable doing research and
conducting interviews. With the exception of one former governor and one former mayor, virtually
everyone we reached out to agreed to be interviewed. Koch’s family and friends opened their homes and
their photo scrapbooks to us.
Editing the movie was a bit more challenging. Koch is my first film, and while I was fairly confident of the
movie I wanted to make, I simply lacked the tools to make it. Thank God for film editors. Juliet Weber
spent a month looking at our hundreds of hours of footage and gave the film its structure, pacing and
ultimately its poignancy. She demanded a huge amount of creative freedom, and I’m glad I gave it to her.
Documentary subjects, particularly famous ones, can be difficult. In almost every case I am aware of, the
main subjects keep certain subjects off limits, or burden the filmmaker with demands that effectively give
them control of the film. From the day his indispensable Chief of Staff Diane Coffey arranged our first
meeting, Ed Koch gave me free rein. When I broached the subject of his sexuality over dinner the night
before a shoot, he said simply “Ask me anything.” His only condition was that he see a cut of the film so
he could suggest changes. When I refused to show him a cut until the very end of the process, Koch was
angered, and for a few months we stopped speaking. Once he saw the film, he did not ask for a single
change—despite getting roughed up in several scenes.
After a recent screening, a friend asked me to tell him just how one does make a movie. As we approach
the end of this two+ year adventure, I would say now the key to making a good movie is to find a subject
you’re passionate about, and then go out and hire Jenny Carchman to produce it for you. The filmmaking
process rarely turns out as planned, and ours was no exception. There were delays, there were
arguments and there was some staff turnover. Jenny held it all together, and was a true partner in every
facet of the film.
From World War ll and until only recently, it was almost an article of faith that the United States’ big
northern cities only deteriorated; they could never get better. Somehow, New York City defied that trend,
and it did so I think because it kept itself open—to immigrants, to businesses, to artists and to poets. In
my view, the very imperfect Ed Koch intuitively understood what made New York special, and I believe he
is as responsible for the New York City of today as anyone alive.
–Neil Barsky
***
KOCH
OPENS WIDER IN NYC AT CINEMA 1,2,3 AND AT THE CINEMA ARTS CENTER IN HUNTINGTON L.I.
ON FEBRUARY 8TH, 2013!
Opens Kew Gardens Cinemas, Malverne Cinema 4, Roslyn Cinemas & Sag Harbor Cinemas on February 15, 2013
Former Mayor Ed Koch was the quintessential New Yorker. Always ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, the recently deceased (he died on February 1, 2013 the day the film opened in NYC) Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime.
With KOCH, first-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky crafts an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, KOCH thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.
KOCH is a beautiful documentary examining one man’s fascinating journey into rehabilitating the very unhealthy city of New York in the 1980s. Sometime stubborn and unapologetic, Koch also opens the door to his much-speculated-about private life, which he doesn’t mind being asked about, so long you don’t mind being told to mind your own business. With his trademark greeting “How I’m Doin, ’’ his combative energy and his charming wit, Ed Koch makes for the perfect documentary subject. Says director Neil Barsky: “Making a documentary about Ed Koch was an easy call. I cannot think of a New Yorker as popular or as polarizing. Ed Koch’s story is in many ways the story of the city.”
KOCH opened on February 1, 2013 at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Angelika Film Center in New York. It will open at the Cinemas 1,2 & 3 in New York and the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington L.I. on February 8. The film will open in additional cities following New York, and opens in Los Angeles on March 1st.
For more information about the film & watch the trailer, go to www.kochthemovie.com
or visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/KochTheMovie
Directed by Neil Barsky. Produced by Jenny Carchman. A Zeitgeist Films Release – USA – 2012 – 95 mins
Koch and Mario Cuomo before their last debate in the 1977 mayoral race. As seen in KOCH, a film by Neil Barsky. A Zeitgeist Films release
