The Search for the Zozo
In the early part of the 1900s, Zozos - large, furry, innocent, purple creatures - once freely roamed New York City's streets, and were seen frequently mingling among its denizens and enjoying the public realm. But with the advent of the automobile their numbers slowly dwindled, until the 1930s when sightings became rare and they were thought to go extinct.
But now thanks to a burgeoning livable streets movement and a marked improvement in public spaces in NYC, Zozo sightings have been reported. World-renowned crypto-zoologist Donald Druthers has convinced us to document the facts - and yes, it looks like Zozos could be making a comeback! See the evidence for yourself.
Presenting our long-awaited mockumentary "The Search for the Zozo," featuring many of New York's greatest citizens. You'll hear NYC urban expert Professor Kenneth T. Jackson from Columbia University talk about the history of the Zozo. But in addition, you'll hear accounts of sightings and Zozo-inspired stories from Colin "No Impact Man" Beavan, restaurateur (and cyclist) Florent Morellet, livable streets advocate Mary Beth Kelly, author Tom Vanderbilt, and a slew of advocates working to make safer streets a reality for pedestrians, cyclists, and the general public.
And if you see a Zozo? Let us know in the comments section, or dial 555-ZOZO. You can also check out our website WhereistheZozo? for the latest in sightings and news.
So much fun-- I'm glad I got to see it tonight even though I could not make it!
Congrats to everyone who worked on this. And Ken Jackson? Wow, how great he decided to be in it.
That's really cool!
Great job I will keep a look out for ZOZO The more we do the more they will come.
I think everyone who worked on this film has collectively lost their minds.
Not that this is a bad thing, of course.
But those Zozos are always crossing the street when they don't have the green and they even go the wrong way sometimes, and they scare seniors on the sidewalk -- so let's have more speeding trucks to keep the Zozos at bay. >_<
Great job, everyone!
The Zozo was last seen on Central Park's loop road in 1899, the first year cars were allowed there. But I've heard a few intrepid ones come out during the one-week Marathon closure, only to flee back into the Rambles again for another year.
So what's the area code on that phone number? Because I'm sure I'll be seeing one on my bikeride to Downtown L.A. any day now.
This is fantastic! Keep up the great work!
Excellent work Clarence and team. I seem to be having trouble embedding this one on the Twin Cities Streets for People website. Have you modified your embed code in some way over the past couple of weeks that might be causing problems in Firefox or Safari? I'm just getting a white box without the movie when I try to embed.
The last Streetfilm I embeded was the Curbita BRT piece which worked fine. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
very cool. It's like all my friends went and made a hilarious short film just for me.
I hear Zozos are most likely to appear at 4:20pm in the afternoon.
Did you know that when "Curious George" was first published in the UK it was retitled "Curious Zozo"? At the time, their King's name was "George" so having a monkey in a children's book with that name was thought to be disrespectful.
Wonderful Job!!! I also suggest that a facebook group be started which will bring more people to support the ZoZo hunt and discover the ZoZo's that are getting extinct in various other cities in the world.
Sometimes I think I see one out of the very corner of my eye... but then I look and there's nothing there.
We enjoyed this a lot.