Documentary Films
First published in NYC24, The Hijinks Issue, 2008.
By Jay Corcoran
April Fool’s Day at Think Coffee, New York City.
Mildred Verrier was worried.
One night last week she planned to roller skate at her place of employment, Think Coffee, while dressed in her underpants and other accessories while playing the ukulele.
“The singing and nudity didn’t bother me,” said Verrier a coffee barista-singer, “it’s the roller stakes, I never did it before.”
Continue reading “Think Coffee”
Released: 2001
Length: 56 minutes
Producer: Jay Corcoran
Executive producer: Michael Roberts
Cinematographer: Jay Corcoran
Editor: George O’Donnell
Composer: Scott Killian
Click the “Watch now” button on the video below to watch the entire film or buy the DVD below.
Undetectable is a feature documentary, following for three years six Boston residents on the new multi-drug therapies for HIV disease. The film examines the complex physical and psychological effects of the treatment on three women and three men of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and the importance of AIDS education and advocacy within both the gay and poor and minority communities. It was broadcast on PBS, Independent Lens.
Continue reading “Undetectable: The New Face of AIDS”
In 2006 Nancy Hatch Dupree founded the ACKU from the over 45,000 documents she began collecting in the 1970’s, with her late husband, Louis.
We spent a week documenting some of the programs Nancy and her ACKU team undertake to educate their fellow Afghan citizens. On this day Nancy leads the ACKU to a school one hour from Kabul center. It is the first time the school of 8,000 students will have a library.
Rock Bottom
Released: 2007
Length: 61 minutes
Producer/Director/Camera: Jay Corcoran
Producer: Colin Weil
Editor: Kenny Wachtal
Original Music: Scott Killian
Executive Producer: Joe Lovett
Click the “Watch now” button on the video below to watch the entire film, or buy the DVD below.
Rock Bottom follows the journeys of seven gay men struggling with meth addiction and recovery against a backdrop of an emerging second wave of HIV infection. From grappling with the drug’s effects on their physical and mental health to wrestling with their darkest sexual desires, Rock Bottom delivers a chilling portrait of a community in crisis. With an unflinching eye the film captures their stories over a two-year period, from sex clubs to hospitals to family gatherings. It takes enormous courage to face these demons, and even more to allow the world to watch. Continue reading “Rock Bottom”
New York Diary presents one New Yorker’s personal take on September 11 and its aftermath. How was the immediate, unintelligible horror of the attacks digested and domesticated in the days and weeks that followed?
Harrowing images from the first thirty-six hours give way to the rituals of missing posters, makeshift memorials, to posing for pictures with policemen and buying t-shirts and other 9/11 memorabilia. The film asks disturbing questions about how the global electronic village assimilates and banalizes terror and mass murder.
New York Diary was broadcast on Thirteen/WNET.
Harrowing images from the first thirty-six hours give way to the rituals of missing posters, makeshift memorials and patriotic displays.
The unimaginable devastation of Ground Zero and the twenty-four hour a day removal of debris by truck and barge are juxtaposed with the get a snapshot, and take home a souvenir.
The film asks disturbing questions about how the global electronic village assimilates and banalizes terror and mass murder.
To view New Diary Part 1 click here.