At this year's Tribeca Film Festival, two filmmakers point their cameras at Gotham's ever-changing landscape. CITY's Erin Bremer speaks with Amos Poe and Douglas Keeve about shooting the city they call home.
Winnowed down from a record 4,600 submissions, some 200 films will greet audiences at this year's Tribeca Film Festival presented by American Express when it opens April 23. Founded to revitalize downtown Manhattan after 9/11, Tribeca is now entering its seventh year. On the eve of the festival, CITY caught up with two filmmakers whose documentaries in competition each focus on an iconic piece of New York history. For Empire II, Amos Poe filmed the Empire State Building and other sights from his West Village apartment for an entire year. He then compressed over 60 hours of footage into a three-hour homage to the city. Across town, Douglas Keeve documented the history and reinvention of the once-"democratic" but nearly defunct Gramercy Park Hotel, which debuted its controversial top-to-bottom redesign by hotelier Ian Schrager and artist Julian Schnabel in 2006. Keeve's Hotel Gramercy Park and Poe's Empire II are just a part of the festival's 2008 lineup, available in full at www.tribecafilmfestival.org.
Douglas Keeve: Hotel Gramercy Park
Douglas Keeve's Hotel Gramercy Park comes on the heels of his two widely acclaimed documentaries about the fashion world: Unzipped (1995) and Seamless (2005), the latter of which also screened at Tribeca. A fashion photographer for 15 years, Keeve is now looking toward a still-secret reality show and hopes to make his first commercial feature.
CITY: What was your inspiration for Hotel Gramercy Park?
Douglas Keeve: Well, I've lived in New York for 20 years. A lot of people have just been kvetching to me about how New York was losing its soul, and I've been kvetching internally about the same thing, and I think that was a big reason for doing this film -- to just witness the changes taking place and, from a journalistic point of view, to tackle whether it was good or bad and whether it was happening and whether it was right or wrong. And as is usual with these films, I wind up with more questions than answers. I think I've always had a love-hate relationship with Ian [Schrager]'s hotels because maybe I felt like I was never cool enough to go to them. And I think [I've always had] just a fascination with the man himself.
So has New York lost its soul?
It's very hard to look at anything in the world and not think that it's changed for the worse. It's impossible not to feel that [New York is losing its soul] but whether it is or not, I don't know. Like it says in the movie, New York is always changing, and I want to believe some of the voices in the movie that say that New York will always be the best city in the world, which is kind of how I feel, even though Paris is more beautiful and the food is better in Milan or in Italy. But I love New York -- it is the best city in the world. Whenever I've gone on a trip and I'm coming across the bridge I get this overwhelming kind of giddy, nostalgic glee, sort of like I'm a kid. It's really hard to find that in a lot of places in my life. I think it really lives inside of one and so the answer to the question is yes and the answer to the question is no.
I feel the same way every time I come home from a trip. I wave hello to the Chrysler Building from the Williamsburg Bridge, which I always felt was a little strange, but now I guess maybe it's not so bizarre.
Yeah, it's funny because you forget all of these things in your life, you know? We forget most of our lives, most of our memories, most of why we became filmmakers or writers or whatever, and it's so easy to be jaded and coy and hardened by life and by the city, but New York doesn't let you forget that. It kind of makes you remember. It makes you remember your roots. It makes you remember why you're here.
Above: Long-time residents of the Gramercy Park Hotel
discuss the history of the New York landmark in Hotel Gramercy Park.
The Gramercy Park Hotel has such a strong history with celebrities and rock stars, especially the British rock scene. Why did you choose to instead focus on the family that formerly owned the hotel and the longtime residents who refused to move out during the renovation?
When I heard that people were living through the renovation, I said the same thing as [New York's] Sarah Bernard. She says in the movie that you just can't believe these people are living there. First of all, after all these years, and second of all, during this crazy thing, which anybody who's been through any kind of home remodel knows sort of what it's like. I just couldn't believe they were there. I sort of could understand that it would be crazy to move but it would be crazy not to move. Ian was building his hotel around them and they weren't going anywhere. And I met Ira [Gasman, 32-year resident of the hotel] and I kind of fell in love with him. And I met Regina [Godfried, 21-year resident of the hotel] and I kind of fell in love with her. You know, they're just lovable. I fell in love with them because they represent a past that is rapidly disappearing. Ira is this Broadway veteran. He just represents what I think people were so upset with when they heard the hotel was closing -- a sense of tradition. It was a very democratic hotel, a cheap hotel, and a lot of people could have afforded to stay there. But it was also kind of magical in a way. It really did have all those ghosts when you walk in, whether it's the rock-'n'-roll era or whatever. When you walked in there in the '90s you kind of felt it. It seems like every person in New York has stayed there at one time or another. We always called it a beloved institution, but it was, and I loved the hotel.
How cooperative was Schrager with your filming? Was he happy that this was going on?
Was he happy? I don't think Ian is ever happy to be in front of a camera. He's actually a shy person, and he, I believe, says in the movie, which is true, that Steve [Rubell, his late, longtime business partner] was the front man and Ian is the mad scientist, the master builder. One of the things I had a hard time with was capturing him because I never felt like he came off on camera the way he really was. I had a hard time capturing his giddiness and, in spite of all the hardships and the difficulties, he loved doing it. He was extremely generous with his time and he's never done this before with anyone. I doubt if he'll do it again with anyone because it was hard for him. He doesn't like to be the front man even though he is. The one thing that I just couldn't believe about Ian is what a perfectionist he is and how involved he is in every single detail. I'd be in the hotel at two in the morning shooting details or something, and Ian would show up for a lighting test or something and I would just say, "Don't you work hard enough in your 18-, 20-hour days? Do you really have to be here at two in the morning, three in the morning?" And he'd be like, "No, it's great. We're doing the lighting, we're doing the lighting! It's going to be great. I've been waiting to see this." But it was shocking in a good way how much he cared. He doesn't leave it up to other people. He worries about every detail. [It was] incredibly impressive.
What do you think about Julian Schnabel's design? Was this his masterpiece?
Well, now that he has a hit movie, you better like it. . . . [He laughs.] I will say that to this day, and I don't know why, but I love going to the hotel. I love sitting in the lobby in front of the fire. It's probably partially because I practically lived there at the time Ian was redoing the hotel. But part of it is that I can go into the lobby and sit in a chair and be in front of the fire and just look at the Cy Twombly painting, which is incredible [Ed.: though recently rotated out], and, since I don't have one in my home, I love that. I used to send Ian emails saying, "I'm sitting here staring at the Cy Twombly and it's just my favorite thing to do." And I meant it.
What is your final opinion on the hotel?
Personally, I think the hotel is genius. Do I want 500 Gramercy Park Hotels in New York? No, but I love the hotel. I think it's very special and I like it a lot and I think that Ian in a way kind of did his masterpiece. But I mostly spend my time going to dives so I'll always miss the old hotel as well.
How does it feel to be a returning filmmaker to Tribeca this year rather than as a first-timer?
It's a great festival. I was like, "We're not ready! We're not ready! We're not going to be ready!" And everybody's like, "You've got to be in Tribeca. That's the hometown festival. It's the Gramercy Park Hotel." And I was like, "I'm sorry. We're not ready. I am finishing this film. The film is finished when it's finished and it's not finished." So we did finish and Jane Rosenthal [co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival] was incredible to me. I've known her for years, and when we screened Seamless, she was really incredible and I was a nervous wreck. I'm not fond of public speaking and she was just brilliant. She calmed me down brilliantly and took care of me. And she was wonderful. So I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled to be there and really looking forward to it being over because it's the most wonderfully nerve-wracking thing a director can do.
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