''City of Water'' is a documentary about the future of the New York City waterfront by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and the

Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...

Production

The film was two years in the making. and explores the aspirations of public officials, environmentalists, community activists, and working water-front advocates for a diverse, vibrant waterfront at a time when the shoreline is changing faster than ever before. The documentary contains interviews with the following people: NYC

Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments. Duties and functions Many elected depu ...

Daniel L. Doctoroff Daniel Louis Doctoroff (born July 11, 1958) is an American businessman and former government official. He is the chief executive officer of Sidewalk Labs, a startup company developing technology focused on city life. Previously, he was the CEO an ...

, "green" economic consultant

Majora Carter Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966) is an American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter founded and led the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainab ...

, author

Phillip Lopate Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate. Early life Phillip Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a BA deg ...

, US Representative

Nydia Velázquez Nydia Margarita Velázquez Serrano (born March 28, 1953) is a politician serving in the United States House of Representatives since 1993. A Democrat from New York, Velázquez chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011. He ...

CUNY The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven prof ...

Professor William Kornblum, Director of the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability Rohit Aggarwala, environmentalist Cathy Drew, historian Richard Melnick, founder of the Long Island City Community Boathouse Erik Baard, and others. Velazquez and Carter "present compelling cases for getting communities involved in reclaiming the waterfront, so that luxury condos — or sheer neglect in the case of the Bronx — do not limit their access" while Baard "points out the folly of placing guard rails all along the water’s edge, thus limiting open water access to boaters" Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance President Roland Lewis has described how the documentary "encapsulates the fulcrum issues that face the waterfront right now. Our generation has been presented with a unique opportunity to change the waterfront. The decisions that are facing us right now will affect our grandchildren."

Release

The film premiered on the Brooklyn waterfront on June 21, 2007 and has since been screened at the

National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'' to "stimulate, foster, and promote publ ...

, Socrates Sculpture Park,

Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park Brooklyn Bridge Park is an park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. Designed by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the park is located on a plot of land from Atlantic Avenue in the south, und ...

and

Water Taxi Beach Water Taxi Beach was an artificial temporary beach operated from 2005 to 2010 on a wharf on the East River in the Hunters Point section of Long Island City, in the New York City borough of Queens. It was operated by the New York Water Taxi Compa ...

in Queens, where it "played to an enthralled crowd of residents interested in the river." The film was also screened at the

Center for Architecture The Center for Architecture is located in the neighborhood of Greenwich Village at 536 LaGuardia Place, between West 3rd Street and Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York City. The center was designed by architect Andrew Berman and completed ...

, New York County Lawyers' Association and other venues in 2007, and at the Downtown Alliance and Gotham Center in 2008. The film was broadcast on Channel Thirteen

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

in April and will be screened at the Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival in May.

References

External links

Official Screening Schedule
*

New Film Details Possibilities For the New York Waterfront (Queens Ledger)

Water, water everywhere - Brian Lehrer Show on City of Water, WNYC

Rollin' on a river - The Hudson Reporter
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2007 films American documentary films Documentary films about New York City 2007 documentary films Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language documentary films