As we follow our subjects into the present, we see New York once again undergoing massive social and economic transformation. The Crooked Edge poses crucial questions about the future of New York and the toll gentrification has taken on the city’s unique identity as the vanguard of outspoken self-expression.

THE CROOKED EDGE TEASER (4:38)

CURRENT STATUS

• 90% of production complete
• 35 interviews shot with squatters, activists, musicians, artists, and journalists
• Significant archival material acquired from public sources and personal collections
• Assembly complete, rough cut in progress
• Target completion - Fall 2026

SELECTED SCENES IN PROGRESS

ACT I

• Lower East Side early years/Immigrant melting pot.
• Outside forces destroy Lower East Side/redlining/fiscal crisis.
• 1984, birth of the Lower East Side Squats.
• Squat work days/house rules/organization.
• Squatter diversity.
• Community gardens/extension of Squatter philosophy.
• Different Squat personas/each building unique.

ACT II

• Mayor Koch attempts to pressure and evict the Squats.
• Squatters unify and resist/eviction watch list.
• Tompkins Square Park, home base for the Lower East Side, Squatters, artists, and activists.
• Youths find a home/punk scene grows.
• 1988 Police Riot/city attempts to curfew Tompkins Square Park, loses.
• Neighborhood unifies/alternative art, media intensifies.
• Mayor Dinkins/homelessness explodes in Tompkins Square Park.
• Squatters feed homeless/Food Not Bombs program.
• City closes Tompkins Square Park for a year/community bandshell destroyed.

ACT III

• Mayor Giuliani/real estate lobbyists have their way.
• Squatters stay vigilant as city eviction tactics intensify.
• 13th street Squats take city to court demanding ownership using adverse possession law, and win.
• Giuliani evicts 13th street Squats using excessive force/riot squad/helicopters/snipers and a tank.
• City throws in the towel and remaining Squats legalized/bittersweet victory.
• Mayor Bloomberg/hyper-gentrification/a city for the rich.
• Suburbanization of New York City.
• Activism today/still work to be done.

PARTIAL LIST OF INTERVIEW SUBJECTS

Amy Starecheski is a cultural anthropologist and leading oral historian who directs Columbia University’s Oral History MA Program and served as President of the Oral History Association in 2021–22. Her award-winning scholarship explores how oral histories shape social movements, urban politics, and the meaning of property, highlighted in her acclaimed 2016 book Ours to Lose: When SquattersBecame Homeowners in New York City.

Andrew Castrucci helped co-found Bullet Space - a squat on the Lower East Side that also served as an artist space and gallery. A New Jersey–born painter, sculptor, illustrator, and graphic designer, Castrucci’s work is included in major public collections such as MoMA, the Whitney, Stedelijk, V&A, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Father Frank Morales was a leading figure in the squatter movement, as well as a radical Episcopal priest and long-time social justice activist. A housing organizer in the South Bronx and then later back home on the Lower East Side, Morales was one of the movement’s most impassioned and articulate voices.

Fly Orr is a squatter activist who was an integral member of the punk collective that ran the non-profit art organization ABC No Rio in the 1990s. A celebrated comics artist, zinester, musician, performance artist, and educator, her work has appeared in Maximum Rock ’N’ Roll, World War 3 Illustrated, and The Village Voice.

Jerry the Peddler has been a fixture in the squatter movement from the very beginning. He was an active member of the radical countercultural political group The Yippies since the early 1970s, and an organizer of the Rock Against Racism concerts in New York in the 1980s.

On Davis is an artist and musician who came to the Lower East Side in 1979 and became an early resident of the 13th Street squats. Davis was an active participant in the legal battle against the City, and was the last resident to leave the 13th Street squats when the police forcefully evicted the residents.

Ralphy Boy (Ralph Lantigua) moved from Harlem to a squat on the Lower East Side. Through his legendary Squat or Rot benefit shows, Ralphy created a punk music scene that was centered around the LES squats. He is the lead singer of the grindcore punk band Disassociate.

Rolando Politi was involved in the European squatting movement before emigrating to the Lower East Side and joining the movement there in the 1980s. Politi’s public art installations, crafted from discarded materials, reflect his belief in the sacred value of the detritus we discard and his commitment to transforming waste into art.

Ron Kuby is a prominent American criminal defense and civil rights attorney who represented the 13th Street squatters in their struggle to fight eviction. Kuby is known for championing high-profile and often controversial clients, and co-hosted Curtis & Kuby in the Morning on WABC-AM.

Rosario Dawson is an American actress and activist. Dawson grew up with her mother and stepfather in a squat on 13th Street. She was launched into stardom as a teenager when she was first cast in Larry Clark’s indie film Kids after being discovered on her 13th Street stoop.

Seth Tobocman is an American comic-book artist and illustrator, best known as the co-founder of the political comics anthology World War 3 Illustrated, which documented the squatter movement and fight against gentrification on the Lower East Side. A resident of the squat Umbrella House, Tocobman’s graphic novel War in the Neighborhood depicts the squatter community’s struggle against eviction, gentrification, and police repression.

Stanley Cohen is a New York–based criminal defense and political attorney who represented the 13th Street squatters in their struggle to avoid eviction. Cohen is known for representing highly controversial clients, including members of Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda (notably Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law), as well as American radicals like Weather Underground’s Kathy Boudin and Bronx squatter Larry Davis.

Zero moved into a squat and raised her daughter there after becoming a single mom in her early 20s. A first-generation Puerto Rican New Yorker, Zero grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses on the Lower East Side and was at the center of the squatter punk music scene in the 1990s.

FILMMAKERS

John Pirozzi - Director/Cinematographer IMDb

John has over 25 years of experience in the film business and is based in New York. His feature documentary film, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock And Roll, was a New York Times critic pick. www.dtifcambodia.com/press. Other documentary films he’s directed include Sleepwalking Through The Mekong and The King’s Last Song. He’s directed music videos for Queens Of The Stone Age, Calexico and Vic Chesnutt. As a cinematographer his documentary work includes Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, Too Tough To Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession and Radio Unnameable. Additional cinematography and camera operator work can be seen in the films Boys Don’t Cry, City Of Ghosts, The Irishman, the Hulu series The Looming Tower, the Netflix series Inventing Anna, and Law And Order: Organized Crime.

Ken Pelletier - Executive Producer/Producer IMDb

Ken is an independent film producer, musician, and photographer with experience in many aspects of documentary filmmaking. Ken's documentary film experience includes roles as grant-maker, Executive Producer, Producer, Aerial Cinematographer and Sound Recordist for dozens of successful films such as Icarus (Co-EP, Netflix); One Child Nation (EP, Amazon Studios); The Apollo (EP, HBO); Finding Yingying (EP, MTV Docs); The Lost Leonardo (EP, Sony Pictures Classics), with several documentaries in production. Ken's photography has been published in outlets such as National Geographic Online, Geo Magazine and has been exhibited internationally. Ken serves on the boards of Mother Jones Magazine and City Winery International.

Fred Backus - Producer

Fred Backus is a New York based writer, musician, and theatre artist. He's been active in the NYC music scene since the late 80s. At seventeen he became guitarist and songwriter for the seminal punk band The Casualties, a fixture of the squats and make-shift clubs on the Lower East Side of New York. He continued to write and play music with the Cash Registers, Viva Fidel, the Coils, and Deacon Bishop Revival. As a theater artist he has directed and acted in dozens of downtown and independent theater productions, winning awards for Outstanding Performance in the New York International Fringe Festival and the New York Innovative Theater Awards. He currently serves as the Director of Surveys for the Election Survey Unit of CBS News.

Edmund Carson - Editor IMDb

Edmund Carson is a film editor specializing in documentary storytelling. His recent work includes Afghan Dreamers, an award-winning film that has screened at festivals worldwide. His latest documentary, King of Them All, is slated to air on PBS this year and tells the story of King Records, the Cincinnati label that launched James Brown’s career. He has collaborated with director John Pirozzi since 2013 on numerous projects, including the feature documentary Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten.