This is a history of New York

United States, 1987

Artwork
Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

‘This is a History of New York’ chronicles the seven ages of mankind from Prehistory to the Space Age. In the Age of Hunters and Gatherers, stray dogs patrol the streets while the homeless forage for food. Later in the Medieval Period, crazed street preachers pace frantically before ominous gothic architecture. The richness of Cohen’s vision is found in this haunting imagery and the perception that the thriving city of New York is really the accumulation of humanity’s failures, as well as triumphs.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

Access to this work is restricted for legal or cultural reasons.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

creator

Jem Cohen

Duration

00:23:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1987

Appears in

Group of items

Jem Cohen: early works

Explore

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

B1000381

Language

English

Audience classification

unclassified

Holdings

VHS [PAL]; Reference - timecoded

Digital Betacam [PAL]; Sub-master

Digital Betacam [PAL]; Master

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/107978--this-is-a-history-of-new-york/ |title=This is a history of New York |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=25 March 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}