Facebook to Produce ‘Humans of New York’ Documentary Series
Humans of New York launched in 2010 to little fanfare. But the photo-based blog, which documents street portraits of random New Yorks and their unique stories, quickly grew momentum.
By 2013, the man behind the sensation—Brandon Stanton—published a best-selling HONY book, and in 2014, he went on a world tour to capture portraits and stories across several countries, including Iraq, Kenya, and Nepal. Today, HONY has 18 million followers on Facebook and seven million on Instagram.
HONY is set to now become a documentary series on Facebook, the platform where it first became famous—and a platform that’s eager to break into the original video content market. The web series will run for 12 half-hour episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and produced by Oscar-nominated documentary producer Julie Goldman.
According to Stanton, this project is already years in the making; he’s been interviewing folks on film for a while now.
“It seemed to be a natural evolution to do some interviews on film,” he told Hollywood.
Indeed, Stanton originally planned to launch the series independently but decided to work with Facebook, where he first found fame. And a notable name like Goldman can only improve the end result, he feels.
“This is storytelling at its core, at its most visceral,” affirmed Goldman.
A trailer can be viewed here.
