Drop Dead City is the first-ever documentary about the NYC fiscal crisis of 1975, an extraordinary, overlooked episode in urban American history that saw an already crumbling city of 8 million people brought to the edge of bankruptcy and social chaos by a perfect storm of greed, incompetence, ambitious social policy, and poor governance. Built entirely of 16mm archival footage, it features present day interviews with people who were “in the room.”
The film is an immersive, ticking clock drama, following a year in the life and near-death of this iconic city. It examines the origins of the crisis and documents the increasingly desperate clashes of stakeholders—unions, banks, local, state and federal governments, and average citizens—as together, they slide ever nearer to the unthinkable: bankruptcy. Drop Dead City overturns present day assumptions about politics and compromise, showing what bitter rivals achieved through shared sacrifice and stands as a cautionary tale to every city facing post-Covid challenges of plunging revenue and ever-greater public service obligations.
