“I have deep roots in this city,” explains writer Alan Kaufman. “I know how important, culture, purpose and vision are to keeping a city like this alive.”

Alan’s story is typical of the rags to riches trajectory so many have experienced in New York City. His ancestors were among the million Jews who arrived in the Big Apple after fleeing programs in Tsarist Russia. Thanks to great public schools and subsidised college fees, he was able to escape the projects and study at City College of New York (known as the Harvard of the proletariat) and become a respected writer.

Alongside artist, photographer and activist Clayton Patterson, Kaufman discusses with filmmaker Simon J. Heath how New York City no longer offers the opportunities for social advancement and creative freedom it gave them and ponders what this means for the city’s future.