top of page
NEW YORK:
A DOCUMENTARY FILM
2026〡USA〡ENGLISH
TWO EXCITING NEW CHAPTERS OF THE AWARD-WINNING PBS SERIES NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM
SYNOPSIS
NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM is the landmark, Emmy and DuPont Award-winning PBS series chronicling the extraordinary history of one of the world’s greatest cities, spanning eight episodes and 17½ hours to trace nearly 400 years of New York City’s evolution from its Dutch colonial origins to its rise as the cultural, financial, and political capital of the modern world. Originally broadcast on PBS’s American Experience between 1999 and 2003, it has become one of the most acclaimed and enduring documentaries in public television history, viewed by more than 18 million households during its premiere and selling over 250,000 companion DVD box sets, and it remains an evergreen classic that continues to captivate audiences through sweeping storytelling and rich archival material that reveals New York as the nation’s premier laboratory of modern life, shaping America while reflecting its highest ideals, deepest struggles, and constant reinvention.
COMING SOON
EPISODE 9 — SHADOWS OF THE PAST
&
EPISODE 10 — THE FUTURE OF CITIES
Presenting a vivid portrait of New York's evolution and transformation over the last half-century, Shadows of the Past and The Future of Cities chronicle the story of America's largest city across more than 50 years of challenge, growth, and change.
Shadows of the Past explores the forces that shaped the city in the second half of the 20th century, as New York plunged into the most threatening period of decline and disorder in its history—only to rise again, thanks to a stunning drop in crime, to regain its place at the vanguard of world cities. The episode concludes in the summer of 2001, with New York, now remarkably safe and secure, unaware that a new threat from beyond its borders would soon threaten to undo all the progress of the previous decade.
The Future of Cities begins just after 9/11 and follows New York's efforts to recover under the new and untested mayoralty of Michael R. Bloomberg. Through rare archival footage and compelling interviews, the episode traces the aftermath of 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Yet defying the doomsayers, the city also rebuilt itself in these years on a dramatic scale—economically, physically, and demographically—thanks to an astonishing influx of newcomers from around the world. The episode ends with the inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York in January of 2026.
CREDITS
A PRODUCTION OF Steeplechase Films
IN ASSOCIATION WITH The WNET Group for PBS, Lismore Road, Artemis Rising Foundation
DIRECTOR: Ric Burns
WRITERS: James Sanders, Ric Burns
NARRATOR: Robert Sean Leonard
PRODUCERS: Leigh Howell, Bonnie Lafave, James Sanders
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Margaret Munzer Loeb, John Moore, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jana Edelbaum, Regina K. Scully
EDITOR: Parker Dixon (with Chih Hsuan Liang, Omry Maoz, Margaret Metzger, Tom Patterson, Joshua Woltermann, Michael Craft, Li-Shin Yu)
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Buddy Squires
COMPOSER: Brian Keane
FEATURING: New York City mayors David Dinkins, Michael R. Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams; New York-Presbyterian President (Emeritus) Dr. Steven Corwin; The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik; Columbia University Professor Kenneth Jackson; The New York Times' Wesley Morris, Michael Kimmelman and Dodai Stewart; New York magazine's Justin Davidson; Fordham University Professor Christina Greer; architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti; PBS journalist Ray Suarez; New York University Professor Suketu Mehta; The New York Times columnist and co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box Andrew Ross Sorkin; Social Activist Claudia Romo Edelman
STATUS
Premiering September 2026 on PBS
PRESS FOR THE INITIAL 8-PART SERIES — NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM
"Burns' mammoth effort proves nothing short of gripping... captures the city’s sweeping history with its own rare energy, a thrilling melange of film, photographs, talking heads and voiceover readings, featuring the words of everyone from Walt Whitman to Frances Perkins to a host of common folk."
- Variety
"Burns has delivered a monumental documentary series that raises the bar for this kind of work and in the process elevates our knowledge and understanding of a metropolis that is still evolving, or, as one observer rightly puts it, 'always becoming.'"
- Variety
"A literary and journalistic meditation on ideas and images evoked by New York City"
- American Historical Association
"A masterpiece...necessarily sprawling yet extraordinarily disciplined."
- Daily News
"NEW YORK packs in an astonishing amount of material very coherently"
- The New Yorker
"This is still a story of resilience: a reminder of how often New York City has rebuilt itself."
- New York Times
"Burns weaves a lyrical tale of the great metropolis that encompasses not only the city's streets, but also that of the history of America."
- TV Guide
bottom of page