Twenty Four Dollars

by Jane Hubbard

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This short film explores the crucial moment in American history when the island of Manhattan was traded to the Dutch settlers for $24 in the Seventeenth Century. The film reveals the transformation of a pastoral island into the modern metropolis of New York City, using mixed media techniques of sand and drawn animation combined with live action.

Together with Andy Smith, I devised a script for the film which was part inspired by    Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Selling Manhattan’:

All yours, Injun, twenty four bucks worth of glass beads,

gaudy cloth. I got my self a bargain. I brandish

fire- arms and fire-water. Praise the Lord.

Now get your red ass out of here

The film reveals an eco system where the Native Americans embrace the spirit of nature as they live in harmony with their environment. Their animal spirits are represented by bears, wolves and beavers as they see themselves as part of this natural world in contrast to the European settlers who build up the city of NewYork brick by brick, street by street until the natural island is transformed into the artificial construct of Manhattan. The films ends on an elegiac note as the ghosts of the wolves run wild across the concrete and steel metropolis, unbeknown to the modern day inhabitants of the city.