Koch

About The Film

The legacy of the outspoken former Big Apple mayor is chronicled in this intimate, revealing and often funny biography of a quintessential New Yorker and landmark politician.

Born in 1924 to a Conservative Jewish New Jersey family, Edward I. Koch served in the Army in WWII, practiced law, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a three-term New York City mayor credited with saving the imperiled metropolis from bankruptcy and rampant crime in the 1980s. Through extensive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of his political career, the still active and combative octogenarian candidly confronts the turbulent issues of his administration – race, poverty, AIDS, gay rights, housing, labor – his trademark humor and colorful persona on display throughout. Nothing is sugarcoated, including Koch’s divisive racial politics, a corruption scandal, his relationship with his family and faith, as well as his privately held sexual identity.

Culled from more than 100 hours of footage, KOCH is directed by former New York Daily News and Wall Street Journal reporter Neil Barsky.