Last Summer at Coney Island

Short Synopsis

With the future of “America’s playground” hanging in the balance, an amusement park operator and a local historian work to save Coney Island from becoming an ersatz copy of its former self, an empty lot, or even worse, a shopping mall. Last Summer at Coney Island is a feature documentary project, exploring the power of place and asking what value we put on cultural history and affordable recreation.

Description/Treatment

Following its celebrated heyday—when Coney Island was a world capital for amusements, popular culture, and multiculturalism—the area became more renowned for neglect, decay, and sporadic violence. The pivotal moment came in 1964 when Steeplechase, the last of the legendary amusement parks, closed its gates and was demolished by developer Fred Trump. That same year, Astroland, a more modestly scaled park, came into existence. Charles Denson witnessed these events as a twelve-year-old, raised in Coney Island’s first housing project. Although he would eventually leave the area and go on to become an accomplished journalist, the destruction of his childhood playground proved to be a defining, even traumatic experience.

Forty years later, when the film’s story picks up, Charlie has just published a public and personal history book called "Coney Island: Lost and Found." With a building boom infecting New York and the nation, the Bloomberg administration announces plans to make this barrier island at the far side of Brooklyn a new frontier in urban renewal. Thor Equities, a private developer, subsequently purchases a majority portion of the amusement district, including Astroland Amusement Park. Soon, an impasse is created when Thor, city planners, and the public all turn out to have different ideas concerning how Coney Island should evolve. With little instinct for self-promotion, Charlie Denson emerges as a central figure in the ongoing battles that ensue: battles in the greater war for New York City’s future.

Charlie finds an ally, and even a benefactor, in Astroland’s embattled owner, Carol Albert. Never imagining he would one day be an insider in what had seemed to a child as a grand chess game played by larger-than-life figures, Charlie now finds himself befriending Carol. These two characters, one an erstwhile chronicler of local history and the other an accidental power broker, wind up switching roles in some ways over the course of the film. Carol had previously worked as a writer herself and, like Charlie Denson, had a thing for history. She took control of the Park in 2000 when her husband Jerry, who co-founded Astroland, became ill with Parkinson’s Disease. Now, with her beloved husband trapped by a debilitating illness, she finds herself drawn more and more to the past, when things made sense and the future of Coney Island didn’t seem to rest on her shoulders.

Carol comes up with the idea of a Coney Island History Project and hires Charlie to run the program, a task he takes up and embraces as though it were his destiny. From the CIHP museum space in a converted storefront underneath the Cyclone Rollercoaster, Denson explains how the island’s fate has repeatedly come down to a battle between small business operators, ambitious developers, and city planners. The millions who make up Coney Island’s summer crowds are inevitably caught in the middle, not to mention the local community that has for generations looked to the amusements for employment opportunities. Meanwhile, against Charlie’s objections but feeling as though she has no choice, Carol decides to sell Astroland to the developers. It is decision she comes to regret over the course of the film, setting the stage for a dramatic story that made news around the world.

While the relationship of Charlie Denson and Carol Albert serves as the documentary’s backbone, our story is supported by compelling interviews with park employees, preservationists, developers, local business owners, and amusement park visitors from very near and very far.

Last Summer at Coney Island is a dynamic and colorful modern fable dealing with memory, loss, local politics, social equity, and the magic of amusement. In many ways, it is a portrait of a legendary neighborhood as it stumbles towards the future, passing warning signs that the mistakes of the past are likely to be repeated.

PRODUCTION
The film will use a variety of collage techniques, developed through the editing process, to tell a multi-layered story that weaves back and forth between present and past. Double-exposures, time lapse, new super 8 footage, and a host of archival imagery will be seamlessly interspersed with more straightforward storytelling. The film is principally being shot in HDV, enabling the filmmakers to capture many verite moments along with attractive interviews and saturated reflections of the built (and decaying) environment. The film’s intimacy with its characters is matched by an intimacy with the terrain, exposing viewers to sides of Coney Island that few visitors ever see. Rare and unseen archival materials, including many of Charles Denson’s photographs, will reveal the less celebrated decades of Coney’s history.

TIMELINE
Production on the film began in March 2007 as the Astroland staff were preparing for what looked to be their final season and locals were just taking stock of what was happening in their midst. This part of the film will introduce the viewers to some of the key characters who have run the park for years and will also explore some of Astroland and Coney Island’s history with rarely seen archival materials.

As of January 2009, plans for redeveloping Coney Island are nowhere near finalized. The Bloomberg administration is attempting to buy back the land currently owned by Thor Equities so that Coney Island can be redeveloped under city planners’ auspices. But preservationists feel that both the city's and the developer's plans are a departure from the low cost and low rise model that has worked for so many decades. Either way, it’s the end of a long, tumultuous era.

The production will continue to follow the story and the main characters until there is some resolution (most likely another 6-12 months). A public review process will begin in early 2009 as an environmental impact assessment is also made. Depending upon how much support the various sides can muster, the redevelopment will either be shelved for lack of funding and consensus, or construction will begin on a new amusement park that will be surrounded by high condominiums and a shopping mall.

Although some has editing has already begun, post-production on the film is set to begin in earnest when a new round of financing is in place. A target date for the film’s completion is February 2010 when it will be submitted to the Tribeca Film Festival. By that time, an ending will be constructed from one of the above scenarios.

The duration of the film is expected to be approximately 90 minutes for festivals with a one-hour cut made for broadcast.

FISCAL SPONSORSHIP: All contributions to Last Summer at Coney Island are tax-deductible through the City Reliquary, a 501 (c)3 non-profit arts organization.