Matt Green
“THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET” My rating: B
95 minutes | No MPAA rating
Matt Green may be a bit nuts, but it’s a wonderful nuttiness.
Now in his early 30s, Green has spent the last seven years on a quest to walk every street, bike path, pier and park in New York City. He figures that all ads up to 8,000-plus miles.
He’s still not done, but his project has now been documented by Jeremy Workman in “The World Before Your Feet.” This love poem to the Big Apple is enough to make you want to drop everything and start hiking.
Workman’s doc is kind of awe-inspiring. We see Green striding purposefully through swirling seas of humanity; we also see him as a solitary figure in an empty landscape (yes, NYC has such places).
He cruises past landmarks like the Guggenheim Museum, but also wanders down alleyways, across seaside boardwalks and on footpaths through quiet parklands and even a ghost town in Queens. He walks in sweltering summer humidity and in blizzard conditions.
Along the way he takes pictures, which he posts on his web blog. And he meets lots of everyday people, including some who initially are suspicious of him (given his ability to defuse tense situations, Green might consider a post-walking gig as a mediator or reconciliation facilitator).
He is particularly fond of cemeteries (we see the graves of Alexander Hamilton and Harry Houdini) and of the exotic plants (fig trees!!!) that have somehow taken root surrounded by concrete. He finds the oldest and tallest living thing in the city, a tree called The Queen’s Giant.
He has stumbled across hundreds of homemade 9-11 memorials erected in front yards or painted on the sides of buildings.
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