December 7, 2009 -- I had to add a note to this piece I worked very hard on. A community member sent me an email. "Is this the same Clayton Patterson that sold air rights to a developer?" I asked Clayton...he said he did sell part...he had personal reasons. He sold it at some point after the film was made. When he writes a piece, I will post it here. I was shocked and surprised. It does change my feeling about the film and for me the film makers would have to go back and do a re-do...kind of like I am but still the archive and the film are moving and the film is dedicated to people that have passed on . (Our neighborhood died as well...the last gasps under Bloomberg.) I was sent more including comments from other people stating "he is a friend of Mike Rosen and Republican" (I don't think CP is a Republican). I call Mike Red Square Rosen -- developer landlord. Only Clayton can answer those questions if he wants to. It doesn't erase the good deeds he has done as I have witnessed first hand giving Jim Mosaic Man Powers shelter and Jesse Jane. We talked. If Jim had another complete meltdown what of Jesse. With Clayton's okay I called the 9th Precinct and said you have been kind to Jim but if he gets worse please don't put Jesse in a shelter...Clayton Patterson will take her. I wish Clayton had told me but he didn't. He did good by me and generously posted my political art poster in his window for an extremely long time, encouraged and praised my blogging and YouTubes so I am not writing him off but I had to post this heads up. Let every person he has his critics, admirers, a mixture of both, and people that just don't care one way or another. It doesn't disqualify the work he has done but yes I was shocked and couldn't believe it but it is true. It doesn't erase the archive. Note: I have heard both sides of the story on the riots including how rioters threw garbage cans threw windows and were very destructive but still it doesn't excuse police beating people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Original piece I wrote below:
I have a cold that just seems to be getting worse not better so I decided to stay home. I can rent a movie from ITunes on my MacBook so no need for video stores anymore...(my not so humorous point about "progress" the dark and the light side which you get more than glimpses of first hand in Captured.)
I have a cold that just seems to be getting worse not better so I decided to stay home. I can rent a movie from ITunes on my MacBook so no need for video stores anymore...(my not so humorous point about "progress" the dark and the light side which you get more than glimpses of first hand in Captured.)
I watched Captured and it was hard to watch...Heartbreaking...surprisingly there is compassion for almost everyone in the film. The film shows the chaos, upheaval, madness documented by Clayton Patterson and Elsa Rensaa. Clayton is beyond courageous -in your face- and Elsa is mostly quiet, although she has her moments that show she is "Clayton" as she says. The symbiotc relationship works because when Clayton Patterson is being arrested which has happened so many times over the years even recently, it is Elsa Rensaa who is able to capture the arrests because she is somehow invisible and non-threatening to the police. Every time she does, you are left shaking your head with wonder and asking yourself, what are they arresting him for?
You see the horror ever so briefly of Sept. 11 as Clayton and Elsa head down there very close and again the police are there urging them back for their own safety but most of the film takes place on the Lower East Side, Bowery and the East Village.
You see brief, heart breaking images and interviews with a mosaic of people talking about the neighborhood and the changes....you even see the sky piercing mirrored buildings on the Lower East Side that reflect a history destroyed and a community no longer welcome.
One of the most striking and disturbing parts of the film are the Tompkin Square Riots....I call them that. Clayton calls them the Tompkin Square Police Riot. There is no excusing the NYPD and how out of hand they get. You see the courage of both Clayton and Elsa even post- the riots yelling out police badge numbers when confronted with police that have over stepped the line. You do feel compassion for the NYPD though and that is what is unusual about the film. You see the eyes of the police -- some very young and clearly they are over whelmed. The people I don't have compassion for are the NYPD officer that viscously hits a woman over the head and I can't see why. One is confronted and they do get his badge no. He says nothing. Some NYPD officers have removed their badge numbers during the riot which is not a good sign...all captured.
Why are there so many homeless people and why do they have no where to go but Tompkins Square Park? Not shown in the film were the small shanty huts I would pass running down the East River. Leave it to our current mayor, Mike Bloomberg to offer the homeless one way tickets out of NYC.
A good looking NYPD retired narc officer is interviewed quite a bit and even at the end of the film visits Clayton and Elsa for the first time setting foot inside their home which he never imagined would happen and Clayton gives him a photo of him and his partners from before he retired.
Clayton is powerful. You see him being beaten up by the NYPD which happened more than once and he wasn't breaking the law doing anything illicit, just documenting the mayhem. He opens his mouth at one point and you see a lot of gold. They are all replacement teeth knocked out by the NYPD.
He refuses to give up his video footage of the riots because he is afraid the NYPD will destroy it and he is sent to jail. There is a brief flash of recognition...oh, his lawyer is Kunstler...of course. Clayton does go to jail for 90 days for refusing to give up his video tapes. There was a shake up and some NYPD officers were fired.
I had to laugh when I see the rioters running in to the Christadora -- the symbol of gentrification....They storm the Christadora and grab a tree from the lobby and plant the tree in Tompkins Square Park during the riot but some of the riots was not so Harold and Maude and violent by both rioters and NYPD. Today there are still protests that end at the Christadora!
Where was Ed Koch during the Tompkins Square Park riots? Koch was in the Hamptons...it could have been Bermuda...he wasn't rushing back to the city. The Hamptons are really not the far away and he made no effort to be on the scene which speaks volumes. Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch and Bloomberg are made reference to in one way or another and to answer Koch's question...how am I doing...not good although the handsome police officer that aged beautifully says Giuliani did improve things...yes and no. He laid the ground work for Bloomberg who would rob what was left of NYC's soul.
After the Tompkins Square Riots, Clayton Patterson is on Oprah - the younger fiery Clayton proclaims to Oprah, "Little Brother is watching Big Brother."
How prophetic!
Who knew the era of cel phones, IPhones like mine which would allow me to post a video to YouTube live from the street? If I want to be fast I can do a minute movie and post with-in one minute. I can film for as long as I want on my phone and even do small primitive edits and post up to YouTube's limit from my IPhone which as a non-YouTube partner is 10 minutes. Clayton had no idea how prophetic as even the poorest New Yorkers can now have video capacity on their cel phones and recording capacity on their portable gadgets so it is true...little brother and little sister are watching.....too.
If I was interviewed for Captured I would have asked Clayton and Elsa this...Could you imagine if YouTube was around during the time of the riots? They were at the forefront of a primitive technology that has advanced enough that it is now possible for almost every New Yorker, citizen journalist around the globe to film and even post to the world wide web for a global audience. If I talked about the tsunami of community crushing development under Bloomberg I don't know if I would have cried or screamed. My maternal Grandfather was born in a tenement house in 1904 not far from Clayton and Elsa's home.
Clayton has helped the NYPD to be a better police dept. although I am sure not all appreciate the growing pains he brought about but you you see how he paid dearly with his blood and teeth literally being spilled on the streets of New York. Elsa quietly films him being beaten up, tossed to the ground, his teeth knocked out which had to be almost as brutal to watch for her.
There is a mosaic of people. As Clayton Patterson points out... "You could be you could be who ever you wanted to be on the lower East Side, you could dress any way you wanted...you could be a man and dress up as a woman...a skin head...." I briefly saw a young Marlene, who I have documented on this blog, now in her mid-50's still mostly homeless and like a ghost often returning to the park only to be consumed by her own demons and other's. I see Jim Mosaic Man Power as a young man and later as an old man wearing my prized NYC Marthon Jacket which I am sure is now in the garbage and the reason I probably started talking to Jim the mosaic man in the first place Jesse Jane the beautiful dog not the porn star by his side. I love Jim's art which is pictured in the film. My eyes even see the base of a light pole with Jim's mosaic as an NYPD officer on a horse tries to restore order during the riots...which he can't do.
I also could not feel compassion for the huge construction worker who comes up to Clayton as he documents the tear down supersi-f-ication of the Lower East Side of a hideous new build that has managed to bust through zoning. (The "f" is for all us being "f" over by Bloomberg's tsunami of community crushing development.) The construction worker asks "Can I help you?" but he doesn't mean it. He is basically telling Clayton to buzz off and Clayton being Clayton has an answer. He looks to the camera and talks about being neighborly...
I had my brief visits to the Pyramid Club and CBGB's and I don't miss them because I can't take loud music anymore but I miss the dynamism of the neighborhood and dread Bloomberg's shopping mall NYC. I do miss CBGB's being there and the opportunity it presented for people to get on stage and perform....I feel sick at the new stores that have replaced it. The Pyramid Club endures but I have not been in there since college and I am 47.
Clayton gains the trust of the divese subjects he photographed and you feel he is accepted and taken in deeply to places many people would fear to tread and he does with simpatico and genuine feel for their humanity. He clearly has a love and compassion for his subjects. Clayton Patterson has been able to hold on to this love and compassion for NYC characters even if they themselves could not hold on as you become aware of loss from drug overdoses, AIDS, violence. For me it is powerful he has never lost that feeling.
He concedes he is growing older and he too wonders, as do I, will he leave...?
I recommend this film by Dan Levin and Bob Solmon. It is striking. Clayton starts off as a wild fiery one man revolution documenting the history and some of it is very disturbing. He is so trusted he is able to photograph the art of heroin bags and people shooting up. He is so brave he takes on the NYPD more than once and every time he seems to be hitting the ground as if he is quarter back sacked by an angry group of football players from the opposing team and handcuffed.
He is brave! One arrest would discourage me but not Clayton He has compassion. He doesn't walk around with hate and it was touching how he invites the retired police officer with quiet Clint Eastwood like looks in to his home... Clayton asks him a question about his insights into gentrification and the retired NYPD officer answers with humor...he wishes he he bought property on the LES. I can't do justice to the film or the mosaic of people. You have to see the film.
Clayton loves the NYC characters and he is one...originally from Canada now pure New Yorker. He has gone from fiery to Buddha of the Lower East Side with lots of insights...from rebel to peacemaker. Clayton is unforgettable and his footage looks like it inspired so many films from Blade Runner to Mean Streets but with a lot more compassion...
Funny or not so funny side note: I have seen photographers that appear to have copied Clayton, growing their hair and attempting to grow their beards but no one can duplicate the original. One photographer seemed to be baiting the NYPD and I couldn't help wondering to myself was he hoping to provoke the NYPD to get beaten up like Clayton?
Ironic note: Clayton and Elsa do not have a blog or a flicker site so all the more reason to watch Captured. You will see boxes and boxes of photos all labeled by year, year after year....
Here is my interview with Clayton on "Captured" the documentary!
I have a series of YouTube interviews with Clayton Patterson about NYC, politics, art and life on the Lower East Side.
For me little sister watching big brother has been me filming my YouTube series on NYC politics starting with "Mayor Bloomberg King of New York"
Illlusion of Demcracy Quinn-Kerland-Derr Debate NYU & The Villager pull dastardly deed See little sister filmed by little brother http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzqwJTE0l0
