Song of My City, a 2025 short film directed by David C. Roberts, runs just under twenty minutes and captures the emotional essence of 1970s New York through a vibrant collage of archival B-roll. Instead of telling a traditional story, the film functions like a visual poem, blending images of neon signs, crowded sidewalks, smoky clubs, and the city’s rougher edges with music from artists such as The Velvet Underground, Philip Glass, andGene Krupa. There is no conventional cast; the “characters” are the streets themselves and the anonymous people who once walked them.
On a factual level, the film is exactly what it aims to be: a mood piece that compresses the spirit of old New York into a compact, impressionistic experience. The editing is tight, and the cinematography—though sourced from older materials—feels intentionally textured. It’s nostalgic without being sentimental, and the director seems interested in showing the city not as a polished myth but as a living, breathing, occasionally grimy organism.
From a personal perspective, I enjoyed the atmosphere more than I expected. There’s a haunting quality to watching a city rebuild itself through fragments of films that helped define its mystique. However, the same strength can also be its weakness. Because it has no narrative, interviews, or emotional arc, viewers who prefer structure might feel ungrounded. The film offers emotion instead of explanation, which means its impact depends heavily on your own connection to New York–based cinema.
Song of My City works well as an artistic experiment and a quick glimpse into the aesthetics of another era. It isn’t profound and it doesn’t aim to be, but for anyone who enjoys cinematic nostalgia and creative montage filmmaking, it offers a satisfying—if modest—experience.