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Logline

Twenty years after snapping pictures of over 300 strangers in New York City, photographer Michael Berman is on a mission to find the people from those photos and learn how their lives have evolved, ask what inspires them, and hear their thoughts on how to live one’s best life in our complex and challenging world.

Synopsis

’99 Snapshots interweaves the stories and reflections of dozens of people photographed in New York City by Michael Berman in 1999. Embracing the diverse mix of its randomly-found cast, this 5-part documentary series combines interview and vérité footage, city walks, archival images, and animations to reflect on the passage of time and the numerous ways in which people’s lives (and the world) have changed over the past 25 years. While some characters appear only in short, one-time encounters, others’ stories unfold across multiple episodes. Each episode also includes voice-overs by the filmmaker, who shares stories from his own life to help highlight what the characters’ stories so amply reveal—our common humanity. Ultimately, ’99 Snapshots asks us to reconsider the assumptions we make about others and to discover how similar we all are, despite our differences.

Meet the Filmmakers

Michael Berman — Director
Michael Berman was born in Washington, DC, in 1967, and has been taking pictures since the late ’80s, when he began to document life in New York City while attending NYU. In the late ‘90s, Michael began to find work as a photographer, first for community papers in Brooklyn and next for the New York Daily News. Since 2006, he has worked as a freelance photographer, including for numerous newspapers and magazines, restaurants, brands, schools, and non-profits. He likes to create imagery that can help a client succeed, but his true passion is documentary. While cleaning out a storage unit in 2016, he found a set of portraits he had shot on the streets of New York City nearly 20 years earlier. Curious about what had happened to the people in those photos, he decided to try to track them down and interview them. He believes that exploring the lives of this diverse group conveys a timeless—and timely—message: we can learn from anyone we encounter and the recipe is simple. Meet people. Connect with them. And spend some time listening (not just talking). Because by understanding other people’s perspectives we can each better understand our own place in the world.

Jeremy Workman — Project Consultant
Jeremy Workman is the director of the documentaries Secret Mall Apartment, Lily Topples The World, The World Before Your Feet, Magical Universe, and Deciding Vote, among others. Jeremy’s documentaries have played at prestigious film festivals and been released in theaters and on TV across the globe. Lily Topples The World won the Jury Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. The World Before Your Feet was released in over 100 global cities during 2019 and currently stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jeremy has also created trailers for countless indie films.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.