Streetfilms History

The story of Streetfilms is a twisty, exciting tale of activism at its best.

Let’s begin in October 2004. At the request of the bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group Transportation Alternatives (T.A.), filmmaker & bikeTV producer, Clarence Eckerson Jr., shot and edited a twenty-minute short called “The Case for a Car-free Central Park.” The film premiered at a standing room only rally of nearly 700 people on the Upper West Side and weeks after its debut the NYC Department of Transportation announced the implementation of several measures to make the park safer.

This effectiveness was not lost on one of the attendees, Mark Gorton, a major donor to T.A. and founder of LimeWire. Mark had started to take an increased interest in transportation and was particularly concerned about how dangerous it was for New Yorkers to cross their streets, ride a bike in traffic, and to find quiet, open spaces to relax in near their homes.

Mark was eager to accelerate the public’s learning curve on transportation issues and realizing the amazing potential of video’s influence he met with Clarence to discuss his advocacy film work. Soon after he hired him to produce shorts about communities' struggles to make their neighborhoods safer from traffic. Much of this initial phase was very critical of government and documented the difficult, on-the-ground conditions for pedestrian life of New Yorkers.

The next step involved a groundbreaking partnership: in 2006, the New York City Streets Renaissance (NYCSR) was formed. A collective effort of non-profit advocacy organizations T.A., the Project for Public Spaces, and The Open Planning Project, the primary goal was to encourage a citywide enlightenment in planning our streets for people and places, not cars and traffic. And to help foster an atmosphere of cooperation between the NYC DOT and communities while pushing for innovation - particularly the creation of more car-free, people-friendly pedestrian plazas.

As the number of films grew, it soon became apparent there needed to be a better delivery system for the general public to alert them of their existence. Fortunately, in the spring of 2006, Aaron Naparstek, a Brooklyn community leader, transportation expert and author of Honku: The Zen Antidote to Road Rage, pitched Mark Gorton the idea of creating a blog chronicling transportation and urban environmental issues that weren't being regularly covered by any other New York City news source.

Coincidentally, Mark had also been thinking along the same line - and thus Streetsblog was born. When Aaron began featuring some of Clarence's videos on the site, Aaron coined them "streetfilms". It was a simple name but all agreed it fit and a vlog was started as a sister site to Streetsblog.

Today, Streetfilms continues to evolve. Although still producing some films on a community level, Streetfilms is now tackling more complex issues like bus rapid transit, parking policy, police enforcement and the spatial inequity of the way our streets are divided. Many films have had a dramatic effect on the public conscious and policies.

One of many prime examples of this was Streetfilms’ documentation of the weekly car-free event in Bogotá called Ciclovia, a film Clarence completed in December 2007. Since publication, the film has been viewed over 200,000 times on Streetfilms and YouTube, and used by many cities to rally their governments to do the same thing here in the U.S. Cities like Portland, Baltimore, and San Francisco (where the video was actually showed to the mayor) are a sample of cities who have cited it as integral to convincing leaders to try a similar strategy.

Our video calling for physically separated bike lanes preceded by nine months installation of just that same kind of innovative facility in NYC. It spread debate around the country where now cities from Washington D.C. to Portland have or are installing their own. And while we like to educate and enlighten, we also like have fun thinking outside the box too: highlighting Bike Boxes, explaining traffic calming, and garnering “exclusive interviews” like this one with A.U.T.O. lobbyist Veronica Moss.

But back on more serious ground, Streetfilms has interviewed world transportation experts like Jan Gehl, Janette Sadik-Khan, Donald Shoup, "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz, David Engwicht and brothers Gil and Enrique Peñalosa. We’ve also featured eclectic personalities such as New York Times "Ethicist" Columnist Randy Cohen, Colin “No Impact Man” Beavan, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, and bike locking expert Hal Ruzal among others.

Streetfilms influence extends well beyond its website. We have had public screenings or community showings nearly every state in the U.S., as well as presentations at dozens of film festivals and conferences. Nearly thirty city or state transportation offices in the U.S. have requested and used our work. And the big number: Streetfilms have now been viewed over 2.5 million times - a remarkable achievement in the narrow genre we exist within.

In 2007, Streetfilms continued to grow with the addition of filmmaker Elizabeth Press, who has brought her unique vision to such films such as Bus Rapid Transit in Curitiba; produced an awesome documentation of a “Bike vs. Car vs. Transit” race in NYC; and has taken a particular interest in bike-sharing systems with separate films on “Velib” from France, “Smart Bike” in D.C., and “Governor’s Islands’ Free bike Fridays”. After serving as our summer intern in 2008, we added Robin Urban Smith as an Associate. She’s put together a great film explaining “Daylighting” and was invaluable in helping us put together our mockumentary “The Search for the Zozo”.

Streetfilms has visited dozens of cities and countries, from Melbourne to Seattle, from Paris to Phoenix, from Brazil to Chicago. Where should we go next? Drop us a line.