INTERVIEW WITH GREGORY KING,
DIRECTOR OF "MANHATTAN CANYON"

By Rooftop Films on 12/01/2008

Manhattan Canyon (Gregory King | New York | 2:03)


For two full days in the summer of 2004, Gregory King strapped three cameras (two Super-8 and one video) onto his body and trekked up and down the length of Manhattan, taking one picture at each intersection. Music by Rachel's.

Q&A

Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film.

Gregory King: It's an experimental/poetic portrait of Manhattan that highlights its architectural density and pace of life. I slung three cameras (two Super 8mm film and one mini-DV video) around my neck and shot either one frame of film or a short second-burst of video at every intersection of the city, looking south, starting from as far north as I could go safely on the east side, and an equivalent spot on the west side. It's a miracle I wasn't run over, cause once I was in the zone shooting, I wasn't watching traffic much at all.

RF: What was your inspiration?

GK: Loving the sense of a 'canyon' one feels when looking down an avenue in Manhattan, and how this creates a powerful effect of space and light .

RF: Is there anything you'd like to share about the film that might not be immediately apparent (your conception of the film, backstory, production methods, etc.)?

GK: The process of shooting it was really enjoyable, because it offered me a unique experience of the city and its neighborhoods, compressed in the span of a couple days. I started with the east side, on Madison Ave and walked the length of the city in one day. This took me through an enormous diversity of neighborhoods and cultural expressions in a way that was so thoroughly 'New York', but which I hadn't experienced before.

RF: How long did it take you to gather all of this footage?

GK: Two days; one for the east side, and another for the west side. It took about 9 hours each day to capture all the shots. Not as much as I thought!

RF: Tell us a bit about the aesthetics of the film. Why did you choose to place the eastern and western images horizontally side by side as opposed to vertically? What effect did you hope this would achieve?

GK: To create in essence a 'third form', that being the negative space shape of the sky, that has a life of its own and which I felt was a more original approach to the subject matter. I've seen other artists depict the streets of Manhattan, but none in quite this manner. I wanted to give the sky equal footing to the buildings, which would have been lost had I set them in a 'normal' orientation.

RF: Is there a specific comment about life in New York City held within this film?

GK: I like to think about the fact that this city is never static, never 'settled' or fixed; it's always undergoing its own organic-if steel, glass and brick can be seen as organic-transformation and realization. Buildings go up, come down, get altered, cleaned or otherwise renovated, layered with scaffolding, spray painted and etched by weather, all of which I find endlessly fascinating. New York tomorrow is a different organism than New York today. Some of that, unfortunately, can be heart-breaking, as in the case of landmark buildings being bulldozed, but as a whole, it never ceases to amaze me.

RF: How did you decide on the pace of the editing in the film? Does its rapid pace have to do with your own experience of the city itself?

GK: I played around with various durations for each frame, corresponding of course to various speeds overall. I found that if each frame lasted only 'a frame of video' (30 fps is standard video), the piece went by too fast and was jarring, but if each frame lasted too long, there wasn't the sense of traveling down the avenue. Ultimately, I felt I found a 'sweet spot' that allowed for both a recognition of its frame-by-frame nature and enough time to feel the character of each part of town represented. But yes, certainly the speed relates to what it is like to live in New York, especially in Manhattan.

RF: Any interesting stories about the production? Any particular difficulties or serendipitous events or pleasant/unpleasant surprises?

GK: This was shot only a few years after 9/11, so there was definitely a sense of caution/uncertainty on my part as to what obstacles I might encounter while shooting, since I would be, for the better part of a day, pointing up three different cameras at every single intersection to photograph the buildings of New York. And sure enough, I was met with a host of interesting reactions from pedestrians (mostly positive, I must say): a police officer asked what I was doing the second I entered the upper east side, and said 'people in the neighborhood were asking questions', but he let me go without another thought when I said 'making art' (it felt like a jedi mind trick); a truck driver cursed me out while making a turn, calling me a terrorist; a very put-together businesswoman in Midtown said in a snooty tone, "You shouldn't be doing that"...it was quite an interesting couple days. Ultimately though, the only real obstacle I encountered was at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge (my east side route took me there), where 24/7-stationed police officers said I couldn't film that part of the bridge. So the film lacks two shots because of this, sorry to say.

OH! But also--and this is CRAZY--the second day I shot happened to be one of the days of the Republican National Convention in 2004, and I walked RIGHT THROUGH just throngs of convention-goers, police, and who knows who else on 7th Ave, and not one person asked what I was doing. But they had probably already done a background check on me via satellite before I got even close.

RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?

GK: I am in the sense that I make my living as an editor and cameraman, and the fact that I'm always making something of my own.

RF: What is your current/next project?

GK: I'm in post-production on my first feature-length documentary film called 'Our House', co-directed with Brooklyn filmmaker David Teague (the man behind the NYC chapter of Flicker Film Festival), which should be done in early 2009. It's very New York in its own right; it's about a group of punk rock dudes in their 20s that ran a community house for the poor and homeless in an abandoned warehouse in Williamsburg. The guys are also devout Christians, so it was a truly unique expression of faith and social activism; anarchist-squatters helping people on the street, going to hardcore shows, sleeping in sub-zero sleeping bags in an empty building...all in the name of Jesus.

RF: If you've been to a Rooftop show, how was the experience?

GK: I love going to Rooftop shows! They are a fantastic venue to see new work, AND to experience the city, as the locations are all situated in interesting areas. I love the sense of community it supports, and the fact that live music precedes each show; it's a great way to hear new music and feel like you're a part of the cultural bedrock that makes this city great.

RF: What excites you about having your short film on Rooftop Films at IFC.com?

GK: That it's so accessible, and easy to share. Anyone in the world can see it! You can't beat that. Plus, all the other shorts are awesome, so it's fun to be grouped with such a wide assortment of ideas and talented people.