Reflecting on Steve Bilich's NATIVE NEW YORKER In Honor of Native American Heritage Month

SHAMAN TRAIL SCOUT “COYOTE,” CAPTURED BY STEVE BILICH ON A HAND-CRANKED CINE-KODAK CAMERA DURING THE 9/11 ATTACKS, FOR BILICH’S DOCUMENTARY NATIVE NEW YORKER. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

On the occasion of November being Native American Heritage Month, we reflect on Steve Bilich’s 2005 film NATIVE NEW YORKER, which is exclusively available, worldwide, from GME, for acquisition and exhibition by cultural organizations, as well as for clip licensing by commercial productions.

Shot before, during and after 9/11, NATIVE NEW YORKER took several years of filming with a 1924 hand-cranked Cine-Kodak camera. It follows Shaman Trail Scout 'Coyote' as he takes a journey that transcends time, from Inwood Park (where the island was traded for beads and booze), down a native trail (now “Broadway”), and into lower Manhattan (sacred burial ground, now including the newest natives of this island empire).

NATIVE NEW YORKER won the top documentary prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. GME President Jon Gartenberg worked as a programmer at Tribeca from 2003 to 2014, and is responsible for including Bilich’s film in the 2006 lineup. In an interview from the festival that year, Gartenberg spoke about his reasons for selecting Bilich’s film:

It's not formulaic or routine or glossy at all. This is not a film that was going to get anyone an agent or a Hollywood deal; it's a very personal film, and that's the first thing that impressed me about it… it does have a 9/11 element to it, but you don't find that out until much later in the film, so… it takes on a much more intense emotional resonance… NATIVE NEW YORKER also fit[s] into what I call the tradition of the city symphony films. Usually these were old, silent films that attempted to show the life of a city from morning to night. Steve's film is more structured geographically, from Upper Manhattan to Lower Manhattan, and so, to me, it's a city symphony functioning on a different level… Also, it was made with this old, historical camera. It's a document of history created by a piece of history… On a social and political level, the film equalizes, in a sense, the death and destruction caused by the terrorist attackers on 9/11 [to] the historic displacement and death[s] of Native Americans by occupying Europeans centuries earlier.

A full interview with Gartenberg discussing Bilich’s film at Tribeca can be viewed below:

For more information about NATIVE NEW YORKER, visit the official listing on GME’s website.

For inquires about licensing clips from, renting, or purchasing this title, please contact sales@gartenbergmedia.com.