New York: A Documentary Film presents a compelling two-part chronicle of New York City from the last decades of the 20th century through the first quarter of the 21st. Each film stands alone, presenting a self- contained narrative, but combined they provide an epic portrait of America’s largest city across more than half a century of challenge, growth, and change.

Shadows of the Past explores the forces that shaped the city in the last decades of the 20th century, a dizzying story of challenge and rebirth whose consequences would resonate for years to come, as New York plunged into the most threatening decline in its history, only to rise again—in one of the most extraordinary transformations in the peacetime history of cities—by the end of the century.

The Future of Cities traces the stunning transformations that took place in New York in the quarter-century after September 11th, as New York defied the predictions of doomsayers, rebuilding itself economically, physically, and demographically—even as four massive global crises overtook the city in these same decades, calling on all the resilience and commitment its citizens could muster.