Filmmaker, Ken Jacobs: This is Ken Jacobs. And I've made hundreds, if not thousands, of films.
Filmmaker, Azazel Jacobs: My name is Azazel Jacobs, son of Ken Jacobs.
Ken Jacobs: My first film was about Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. This was the 50s. I needed a contained thing to film. I couldn't afford the car fare to travel around New York. And I lived right next to Orchard Street. It is a jumble of stores crushed together and a huge crowd of people walking through the streets looking for bargains. I was already very critical of capitalism, and this was a strange outgrowth of capitalism, but I began to film it.
World War II had happened recently. This was a very Jewish street, and what had happened with Nazis through World War II was always on our mind. This was a world where terrible things could happen and some way I had to come to terms with that, which I never have. But it's a portrait. I saw many stories happening in tiny gestures.
Azazel Jacobs: I love the woman selling the pop guns.
Ken Jacobs: I was thinking about her too.
Azazel Jacobs: Waving this pistol around.
Ken Jacobs: It's an old lady. She's not nice. She warns the kids away and meanwhile she's demonstrating a pop gun with her hand. It's very funny.
Azazel Jacobs: I also like the group of young people that are holding onto each other, trying to make it through the street without getting separated. And they wave to you to say bye.
Ken Jacobs: I was able to get really right in the midst of things, all kinds of personalities. It was a wonderful experience.