Omolola Ajao
The daily rhythms of a drop-in basement-level, boxing gym in East New York. Delving in between the constant play and performance of practiced fighting, philosophies of masculinity and a sense of continuance evoked out of everyday routine and slight conversation.
Yixin Cen
In a 1970s Chinatown basement, immigrant youth built the first Asian American arts collective and turned it into a movement. Fifty years later, its aging founders confront a neighborhood transformed by wealth and displacement, and a question with no easy answer: could it happen again?
Zachary Finkelstein
The Parachute Jump has watched over Coney Island for generations—a 262-foot steel relic of the 1939 World’s Fair that became an icon of New York’s playground. Once a thrilling amusement ride, it later served as a beacon during wartime blackouts and survived the destruction and redevelopment of the neighborhood around it. Today, illuminated against the night sky, it remains a symbol of resilience.
This film approaches the tower as both a monument to the past and an enduring presence watching over Coney Island. Shot on 16mm color film after sunset, its lattice of steel and thousands of LED lights will be transformed through vertical camera movements and in-camera animation into radiating streaks of color—a visual evocation of a rising and falling.
The filmmaker’s personal history in Coney Island anchors the work. Family memories, archival oral histories, and contemporary voices from the community will intertwine with images of the tower, creating a portrait of a place where history, memory, and dreams of a better future continue to converge.
