Former reporter Neil Barsky joins BYOD to discuss his new bio doc on former Mayor of New York City, KOCH. Barsky talks with us about the complexities of the man that was by turn lionized and vilified during his tenure as Mayor, and also the inspirations he himself felt to take up directing a documentary.
We see some fascinating clips from the film that bring the period to life, and explore some of the polarizing issues of Ed Koch’s time in public, from AIDS and race, to homophobia and government intervention.

Former Mayor Ed Koch is the quintessential New Yorker. Still ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, the now 88-year-old Koch ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, Koch thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.