SEPTEMBER 2020 GUTTENBERGGuttenberg Brief is published monthly by the Town of Guttenberg Mayor: Wayne Zitt Got feedback? We want to hear from you. Write to Council Members: Richard Delafuente, [email protected] or the address below with Monica Fundora, John Habermann, comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see in future William Hokien, Juana Malave issues. Also submit your photos of Guttenberg past or present. Writer/Photographer: Art Schwartz www.guttenbergnj.org Guttenberg Brief • 6808 Park Ave. • Guttenberg, NJ 07093 Guttenberg Couple Helms Guttenberg Needs Your Help Hit Amazon Series ‘Big Dogs’ – Fill Out the Census Today Fans of gritty urban crime thrillers The census is conducted every 10 years to count how many people are in with a dark, dystopian edge have the U.S. and to identify national demographics. Our census responses right a new addiction. “Big Dogs” on now will determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding are Amazon Prime taps into a grim distributed every year for the next 10 years. and propulsive vein, set in a Despite earlier announcements that the census would run through October, the decaying New York City suffering end date was moved forward to Sept. 31. That means if you haven’t already from economic and social done so, it’s critically important that you take a few minutes to fill out the meltdown. census now to help secure important funding for our community. Guttenberg residents will not only recognize certain locations (including Consider this: For every 100 people NOT counted in the census, a community neighboring streets in Jersey), they might recognize two of the show’s principal loses an estimated $1.2 million annually in federal funds. architects: producer-actor Summer Crocket Moore and writer-director Tony Glazer, both of whom live right here in town. Right now, Guttenberg is lagging significantly behind the rest of the country as well as the state in the percentage of responses to the census. This means With a premise involving a broken police department – staffed with dedicated that our community is under-represented in the census, and will receive less public servants, crooked, self-serving officers, and violent vigilantes, all federal funding than we deserve – money that goes to pay for healthcare, roads, navigating a jagged path through a ravaged NYC wracked by a financial crisis schools, infrastructure, and much more. Plus we will have less representation and social uprisings – it reads like astute social commentary cribbed from the in congress based on inaccurate census reporting. latest headlines. Surprisingly, production began in 2018, based on a series of prescient novels by Adam Dunn, written in the wake of the 2008 mortgage Everyone should be counted, regardless of immigration status. Remember, crash. your census information is safe, secure, and confidential. Your responses to the 2020 Census will NEVER be shared with other government agencies – not “The backdrop is set against an alternate reality New York City if we didn’t the FBI, CIA, DHS or ICE. It’s the law. The answers you provide are used only to bail out the banks,” said Glazer, who adapted and wrote the TV series in produce statistics. You are kept anonymous. collaboration with Dunn. In the series, this results in raging social unrest, rampant corruption, and dueling conspiracies. “The pertinent question is HOW TO RESPOND who’s really running things in this county when the state, local, and federal To ensure that everyone is counted, census takers are currently visiting government no longer have money to keep the lights on.” households that haven’t already responded, in order to collect your responses in person. Census takers wear masks and follow local public health guidelines That “what if” cautionary scenario took on increasingly more weight as 2020 unfolded. “We never knew it would be so shockingly close to what’s happening Continued on next page Continued on next page Mayor’s Corner In a normal year, the census would be among the top stories, and one of the most important. But this year has been anything but normal, and many people have neglected the 2020 Census due to other, more immediate concerns. Please don’t make this mistake. Your responses to the 2020 Census – or LACK of responses – will have a lasting and serious effect on your community right here in Guttenberg. Our census results determine how much funding the federal government provides for a vast number of crucial services, from healthcare to transportation to education. By not responding to the census, you are literally taking money away from the town. Please see the article in this issue for information on responding to the census, and take a few moments to bring us the funding we deserve. Remember, the deadline to respond is Sept. 30, so please do it now. Also inside this issue is a compelling look at two hugely creative Guttenberg residents, who developed and are showrunners for the smash hit TV series “Big Dogs” on Amazon Prime. Plus there’s information on school reopening plans, a look at the town’s 2nd annual Pride flag-raising event, and much more. Continued from ‘Big Dogs’ on previous page now,” said Moore. “Originally the “It’s the moment where everything comes to a head,” he said. ad campaign was meant to start Moore came to New York on a theater scholarship, and has built a career as in early June, but we held back an actress and voice actress for animation, commercials, and voiceovers. “I three or four weeks because wanted to be more involved in the types of roles I was cast in,” she said of her we didn’t want to launch in the shift to producing. middle of the riots.” (In another eerie parallel, book two of the Moore was not initially cast in “Big Dogs,” but as her the show hit its groove and series includes a major virus her production duties eased, she unexpectedly found herself playing a tough that attacks the city.) and foul-mouthed federal officer in later episodes. “My character originally was a man, but we didn’t change the dialogue,” she said. “We didn’t want to soften If “Big Dogs” has a moral center, it’s represented by two contrasting it; we kept it crass.” characters: Renny, a libertine fashion photographer who peddles drugs in the thriving underground club scene and finds himself reluctantly sucked deeper FILM PRODUCTION IN NJ & NY and deeper into a whirlpool of grisly gang conflicts; and Sixto Santiago, an “It’s a perfect partnership,” said Moore of her relationship with Glazer. “He’s a Hispanic police officer trying to do the right thing within a dysfunctional system writer-director, I’m an actor-producer.” Together they formed Choice Films in of competing agendas and 2001, producing film, television, theater, multi-media/web projects, and live manipulative bosses. events. “I was immediately drawn to They shot the film “Junction,” written and directed by Glazer, in Fort Lee, along the world and the characters,” with other local productions, before Gov. Chris Christie pulled the plug on tax says Glazer about the book incentives for New Jersey filmmaking, driving projects out of state. (Among the series. “Specifically Sixto. many other casualties, “Law and Order: SVU” abandoned their North Bergen He’s part of a functional, home and moved production robust, healthy family across the river to NYC.) based on strong bonds “Big Dogs” was filmed in and connections. We care numerous locations, including because of them.” Newburgh, NY, where Choice With trash- and rubble-strewn streets concealing a pulsating, drug-fueled club Films established a full- subculture, the retro-futurist vibe recalls the urban/science fiction/vigilante service production studio grindhouse cinema classics that thrived in the 1970s and 1980s. called Umbra. But viewers of episode six may notice some familiar backdrops during the car chase. “As “When the time came for us to talk about the look of the show, we always spoke originally written it started in Brooklyn and ended on Second Avenue,” said about how New York reverts back to the 1970s, ‘80s era,” said Glazer. “The Moore. That proved technically infeasible, so instead they shot the climactic design and props and tone are evocative of that. There’s a cyclical madness to stunt sequence in Jersey City. it that we were always talking about.” “We were thrilled to be working in New Jersey,” said Moore. PRODUCED IN GUTTENBERG Former New Yorkers who migrated north from “It’s one of the best states to shoot in,” said Glazer. “It’s got great locations and Tennessee and Florida respectively, Moore and different looks and places.” Glazer lived for a few years in Weehawken And now, thanks to Gov. Phil Murphy, it once again offers a tax incentive for before getting married and settling in filmmakers, sparking a renaissance in regional filming, which Choice Films is Guttenberg in 2004. eager to embrace. “I consider myself a storyteller,” said Glazer. Among the other notable projects from Choice Films is “Below the Line Boot “Sometimes a writer, a director, a producer. Camp,” a not-for-profit program dedicated to training at-risk youth in the basic For me it tends to be very specific to what I’m fundamentals of film production, and giving them immediate opportunities for scratching at.” Originally an actor, he gravitated employment as production assistants. to writing and has had numerous plays and “We bring them in at ground level and then on an actual shoot,” said Glazer films produced. He directed the last – and best of the mentoring program. “We’re hoping to bring it to Guttenberg, if we can – two episodes of “Big Dogs,” which are both the grimmest and the funniest.