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 1989a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. With KOCH, first-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky crafts 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. KOCH is a beautiful documentary examining one mans fascinating journey into rehabilitating the very unhealthy city of New York in the 1980s. Sometime stubborn and unapologetic, Koch also opens the door to his much-speculated-about private life, which he doesnt mind being asked about, so long you dont mind being told to mind your own business. With his trademark greeting How I'm Doin, his combative energy and his charming wit, Ed Koch makes for the perfect documentary subject.

CAST: Ed Koch

DIRECTOR: Neil Barsky