The Museum of the City of New York had some great exhibitions of graffiti arts and photography of aftermath of Sandy. It was pleasant to see the City museum acknowledging graffiti as one of the categories of art rather than vandalism. However, the twenty-five minutes length media film that summarized the history of New York City was rather informative and felt like being in another history class that only reads our history in the perspective of the state not the people. It was almost as if learning about the process of emancipation and civil rights movements in the view of white leaders, like Lincoln, rather than through the everyday lives of the slaves. The film basically summed the City’s astonishing achievements since the Dutch explored Manhattan. It showed the development of demographics of New York City of being the hub of cultures, innovative city of transpiration, the center of financial market, grand city that has five boroughs and a mayor, and the city that holds 8 million diverse populations. The story of New York City’s success was one-lopsidedly told through tri-dimensions, which made harder for the audience in front seats to focus.

The story of New York City was an interesting film work that portrayed benign patriotism and amazing accomplishments of New York City as a whole but not in the perspectives of New Yorkers as individuals. We inherited the great infrastructures, innovative outlines of the City, and world’s strongest financial district from our antecedents. But at the same time, we inherited a City that has unimaginable gap between the riches and poor, as mayor Bill de Blasio would call it “The tale of two cities.” We can always boast about our great accomplishments as a whole but  it would’ve been better if they included individual efforts of New Yorkers who contributed to make New York and what everyday struggles New Yorkers faced and are facing in New York City. Other than that the media job was a great work that served as a brief synopsis of how New York City has become what it is now.