Metropolis: Seven Films Rooted in New York City

There are a million stories waiting to be told in the City That Never Sleeps. Our Metropolis competition section brings you seven of them. Tickets for all films go on sale to the general public on Friday, Oct. 12.

Director David Osit’s BUILDING BABEL follows the efforts of developer Sharif El-Gamal to build Park 51, a Muslim community center located two blocks from the World Trade Center site that is quickly relabeled “The Ground Zero Mosque” by those opposed to its construction. Director Dan Weschler paints a portrait of street photographer and former taxi driver Matt Weber in his film MORE THAN THE RAINBOW.

Director Amy Nicholson’s film ZIPPER! follows small-time ride operator Eddie Miranda and catalogues the redevelopment of Coney Island’s amusement areas, whose gritty charms disappear under the pressures of economic growth. In RADIOMAN, director Mary Kerr chronicles the life and times of the eponymous New Yorker who overcame homelessness and addiction to become an unlikely New York City movie legend.

MEN AT LUNCH, by director Seán Ó Cualáín, takes a look at the unlikely story behind one of America’s most iconic photographs, the 1932 photograph of workmen taking their lunch perched on a girder high above New York City on the 69th floor of Rockefeller Center. In PLIMPTON! STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF, directors Tom Bean and Luke Poling profile the renowned raconteur and participartory journalist George Plimpton. Director Joshua Z. Weinstein follows 90-year-old cab driver Johnnie “Spider” Footman and his home away from home–the taxi garage across the street from the United Nations–in his film DRIVERS WANTED.

The jury winner of the Metropolis competition will receive a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) provided by Technicolor-PostWorks New York, offering comprehensive post services including data workflows, multi-format conform, color grading, duplication and digital cinema.