Film shows influence of movies on NYC Part-time Mainer lends talents to documentary

Since movies began a century ago, they have been a moving advertisement for New York City.

That becomes abundantly clear while watching “New York at the Movies,” to air 8-10 p.m. Sunday on A&E. The film by Nick Davis, a regular summer visitor to Castine, follows filmmaking in New York from the tentative beginnings of the industry through the present day, with clips from dozens of movies set in the Big Apple.

“New York at the Movies” takes a look at movies both through time periods and genres. It also examines the three best New York-based filmmakers: Woody Allen, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese.

For producer Davis, the most enjoyable, and conversely the most difficult part, was choosing which film clips to use.

“It was a tremendous hoot,” said Davis, 36. “I love all those movies. There were incredibly fun choices, but it was painful not to include certain films. I didn’t know all the ones we ended up using. I didn’t know [film] noir that well.”

The idea for the film came from executive producer Rose Ganguzza, a lifelong New Yorker who saw a crowd lining up to see the movie “Gladiator” near the Coliseum while she was visiting Rome about a year ago.

“She realized that place was as important in movies as the characters,” explained Davis, primarily a TV documentary filmmaker. “She came up with the idea of a series looking at places in movies.”

New York City was a natural to lead off the project. The six to seven months of production began in earnest in August. If “New York at the Movies” draws sufficient ratings, the concept could become a series of specials, Davis said.

Talking about their hometown were filmmakers Lee, Scorsese, Nora Ephron, Sidney Lumet and Peter Bogdanovich, actor-directors Edward J. Burns and Tim Robbins and actresses Lauren Bacall and Liza Minnelli.

How did Davis line up this roster of cinematic luminaries?

“It always difficult to get celebrities to do anything,” he said. “In this instance, particularly in the wake of Sept. 11, these celebrities wanted to do something, so it wasn’t as hard as we’d expected. The people who did talk love, and hate, this city.”

Meryl Streep served as the special’s narrator.

“More than anyone else we talked to, Meryl really wanted to do something for New York,” Davis recalled. “She saw it as her opportunity to say something. She even rewrote her narration, because she had stuff she wanted to say.”

Given the light-hearted tenor of the film, Davis had to wrestle with how to handle the Sept. 11 attacks. In the final cut, about three-quarters of the way through, the film briefly examined how the disaster had changed the New York skyline forever.

“That was the question, because Sept. 11 was hard to relate to what we were ultimately trying to do,” he explained. “It’s such a huge issue, and if you take it on directly, you could make a million documentaries about its effect on pop culture. As Sidney Lumet said, you get a pang when you see the Twin Towers in a film. It takes you out of whatever you are watching. I’m proud of how we dealt with it, because it was unexploitative and moving.”

Davis is a third-generation filmmaker, so celluloid is in his blood. His father, Castine resident Peter Davis, is an Academy Award winner for 1974’s “Hearts and Minds.” His paternal grandparents, Frank Davis and Tess Slesinger, were Academy Award screenwriting nominees for 1945’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” His maternal grandfather was legendary screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who with Orson Welles won an Academy Award for 1941’s “Citizen Kane” and was nominated for the 1942 biopic “The Pride of the Yankees.”

So film seemed like a natural career choice for the youngest Davis.

“I didn’t know what aspect I wanted to do, but I sensed it would be something in TV or movies,” he said.

His producing credits include the Emmy Award-winning “Jack: The Last Kennedy Film” for CBS, “The Language of Life with Bill Moyers” for PBS and CNBC’s “Money and Power: The History of Business.” He also wrote, directed and produced the acclaimed indie film “1999,” a dark comedy starring Amanda Peet, Dan Futterman, Buck Henry and Steven Wright. Another recent work is a “Bravo Profile” of Gene Wilder, set to air on that cable channel. He’s also been an actor and a novelist.

Davis is pleased with how “New York at the Movies” came out.

“Because of Sept. 11, everyone working on the show felt they were working on something that wasn’t totally irrelevant,” he said. “It was about the city we love and trying to pay tribute to it.”