October 17, 2010

  • Amsterdam...

     

    Quite some time ago I was made aware of a film project that although world wide in scope included a local focus; my hometown of Amsterdam. Apparently a team of Belgian filmmakers has made it their goal to visit all the cities named after the original Amsterdam, Netherlands or Holland dependent upon your preference.

    We were one of four Amsterdam’s that they have visited and included in their documentary.

    This is nothing to be proud about. The film is degrading and derogatory highlighting the disintegration of a once prosperous and proud manufacturing city. The fact that Amsterdam is suffering the same downturn that most Northeastern Urban Manufacturing Centers are is not untrue but I can't seem to shake the feeling that these two guys enjoyed our misfortune and used the residents and city officials as dopes and dummies. I know the people chosen. They are good down to earth souls. They have little refinement, though. They were dressed shabbily and spoke, well let's say, not the most grammatically correct English. These filmmakers sought out the dunce, the eccentric, and the dolt. Throughout they were openly condescending and at times painfully rude as if the person being interviewed was unaware of the insult.

    They featured the town bigot.
    They spotlighted the town museum where the curator openly bragged about how well known our little museum is for having the most inappropriate and inaccurate portrayal of Native American Pre-Revolutionary Life in the Mohawk Valley.
    They were given the tour of the city by an official who looked as if he had been rousted from his bed a half hour prior to the interview after an all night kegger.
    They visited our Former National Guard Armory, which they repeatedly referred to as a " castle" emphasizing the the current owner had purchased the Armory on EBay.
    They showed clip after clip of a decrepit Main Street, boarded up and quietly decaying.
    They showed the old obsolete deserted factory building complexes, For Sale signs so weathered that you can barely make out the words.
    They showed the blighted ethnic communities, run down residences, closed neighborhood stores and bodegas.
    They showed the thriving dives, bars and pubs.

    They never did mention the state of the art Hospital or modern shopping facilities now relocated to a different thriving area of the city; or the award winning High School Marching and Concert Bands or any number of bright and positive aspects of our Amsterdam. They did not show the modern fire station and equipment. They have no film footage of the neat, clean neighborhoods and suburbs that still exist populated with intelligent, caring and generous people of all races and religions.

    Not one picture of the beautiful, rolling foothills leading north to the Adirondacks and south to the Catskills was offered. They chose to not include any interviews with prosperous business men and women, teachers, students, or medical personnel.

    One can only imagine their purpose. I can hardly think that they could in any way be holding a grudge. They were strangers for god's sake. Why trash this little town, once a thriving city now a small rural area so deep in desperate times.

    I'm a bit miffed that's for sure. All we are guilty of is sending (and spending) the lives of our beloved fathers, sons and brothers, (twice) to free Belgium.

    Some thanks.