Director Amy Nicholson has a thing for roller coasters, so it’s no surprise her documentary in the Montclair Film Festival is about Coney Island, offering a dramatic view of the topsy/turvy rezoning of Coney Island.
“My film chronicles what happened out there and the politics behind it,” said Nicholson. “It's definitely a film for the liberally-minded.”
As per the story itself, she said it definitely chose her - and not the other way around.
“Therezoning was completed in 2009, and it is a very complicated story,” noted Nicholson. “There is park land involved. It is decided by the city of New York, which approved this rezoning and a complex park land swap. They actually moved this park land from one spot to another.”
Park land - moved?
“Yes, really, it was close by but they had another idea behind,” she added. “It was to protect amusements and rides. These were were already on protected zone land so this was all a big mystery.”
The filmaker, who creates documentaries while also working full time, said she got hooked on roller coasters as a kid.
“I grew up as a teenager in the 70’s, and used to go to Ocean City, Maryland,” she said. “It was similar to Coney Island. The zipper roller coaster was such a crazy thing - it would make you throw up. I started taking it at Coney Island and I got hooked.”
The documentary runs 77 minutes, and took 6 years to make.
“Films take a really long time,” laughed Nicholson. “It took 6 years to make it; editing took a ver long time. But it’s a complicated story and also it took a long time to get interviews with city councilors, such as the well known big time developer Joe Sitt.”
With such hot topics, including moving parklands and working with beloved amusement rides - not to big money tied up in real estate deals - this is one film you may want to catch.
Locals from Coney Island saw it, with many loving the film and all it captured - even the giant protesst that appears in the opening film scene, when protesters marched on New York City Hall.
Check out this film, and also the two other films Nicholson has produced: Beauty School, about dog grooming and Muskrat Lovely, about a beauty pageant in Maryland somehow attached to the world championship of muskrat skinning.
In a curious twist to this saga of a popular boardwalk and seaside amusement park, the city of New York has now hired workers to hand shovel the mounds of beach sand that is piling up on parts of the Coney Island boardwalk. The sand, according to protesters, is from the city's decision to use concrete instead of wooden planks, as a base for the boardwalk. Now, the sand is being shoveled off the boardwalk on a daily basis, and preservationists and many residents are fuming.
Zipper will be shown on May 4 at the Bellevue Theatre as part of the Montclair Film Festival.
