Koch

“Here was a guy who really represented the rough and tumble of New York. And he was just haunted and damned by one helluva personality.” —Rev. Calvin Butts

Three-time New York City Mayor (1978–1989) Ed Koch was combative, funny and blunt. He was also intensely private. In Koch, first-time filmmaker Neil Barsky gives us a contemporary history of the world's greatest city, and an intimate portrait of the former mayor, as he confronts his own mortality and legacy. The film examines issues still relevant today—race relations, homelessness, AIDS and gay rights—and provides a window into the trials and tribulations of the nation's most famous mayor in the world's most wondrous city.

Through candid and colorful interviews, rare archival footage and photographs, and verité footage, this new documentary takes the viewer on a journey back to a time when the city was beset by near-bankruptcy, high crime, graffiti and collective depression. It chronicles how Ed Koch gave the city its morale back, while engaging in exhausting confrontations with his critics.

KOCH begins in the late 1970s, when New York was on the precipice of bankruptcy, dependent on the state and federal governments for its survival. Ed Koch was the master of street politics, and we watch him transform himself from a little-known liberal Congressman to a law-and-order mayoral candidate who cut deals with key constituencies to defeat the better-known Mario Cuomo. Joining his 1977 campaign was also Bess Meyerson, the former Miss America whose constant companionship during that campaign helped mute whispered rumors that Koch was gay.

KOCH follows the mayor as he restored New York's fiscal health and rallies New Yorkers on the city's bridges during the infamous 1980 subway strike, only to embark on a racially divisive decision to close down Harlem’s Sydenham Hospital. Koch rises to become “America's Mayor” and see him defeated as his third term becomes mired in a municipal corruption scandal.

The film also delves into deeply personal issues, and examines the complex relationship Ed Koch has with his own identity and family. A lifetime bachelor who has always lived alone, we observe the mayor hounded by rumors of his personal life, and hear him explain in poignant detail why he has chosen to keep the details of his personal life private.

KOCH is a portrait of a lion in winter as the onetime celebrity strains to remain in the spotlight. We watch the former mayor glad-hand at campaign stops, hobnob with political well-wishers on election night, appear on television and radio and speak in front of small groups. He puts on a stiff upper lip as he is snubbed by Andrew Cuomo, son of his bête noir Mario Cuomo, on election night. We see his spirits brighten at his Gracie Mansion birthday party when Mayor Bloomberg announces the renaming of the Queensboro Bridge in his honor. By the end, we come to realize that while Koch was mortal like the rest of us and could not overcome the inevitability of old age, he would “fight the fight” to the end. Asked what, at 86, he still wants out of life, he answers plainly: “More. Better.”

The documentary is beautifully filmed in high-definition and filled with New York characters and life on the street. As we come to understand how the seeds of New York City's recovery were planted in his administration, Ed Koch emerges as the quintessential New Yorker—embattled and unapologetic. And while he is a man in many ways alone, viewers will come to see and hear what an enormous historical impact he had on the city.