Based on the deceptive “true” tale spun by 1820s grifter known as Lozier, who convinced the entirety of early Manhattan that their island home had begun to sink into New York Harbor.
In the summer of 1824, a retired ship’s carpenter known as Lozier walked into Centre Street Market in Manhattan and made a stirring claim. Because of the over-construction on the battery, he explained, the island of Manhattan had begun to sink into the harbor. To ease the panicking public, and persuade the naysayers, he revealed that the mayor had just given him permission to do the unthinkable. Lozier was to oversee a project to saw the island in half, tow it out into the harbor, turn it around and reattach it to the mainland.
Rob Ludacer’s short film “The Man Who Moved Manhattan” turned out to be a beautiful example of the fine art of hand-drawn animation. In these days of computer animation, it is good to see someone keeping up the traditional way and Rob used it to tell a most interesting and unusual story.