How "The New Yorker at 100" Got to Netflix

"A century-for everyone save historians and the 0.03 per cent of Americans who live that long-is unwieldy, too much time for us to grasp as a unit. But imagine a hundred years as a stack of ten decades, each arranged above the other like books on a desk, their spines neatly designating which years they contain, and the weight of a century becomes almost tangible."

"The task of making meaning from the roughly five thousand issues-along with innumerable online articles, thousands of podcast episodes, and hundreds of short films-of a publication defined by an itinerant curiosity is not an enviable one. The film, which was directed by Marshall Curry, deploys a dual structure that explores both how the hundredth-anniversary issue came together, following reporters, editors, cartoonists, covers editors, and fact checkers as they do their work, and defining themes of each of its past ten decades."

The New Yorker at 100 is a Netflix documentary directed by Marshall Curry that captures a century of the magazine through a dual structure. One thread follows the making of the hundredth-anniversary issue, tracking reporters, editors, cartoonists, covers editors, and fact checkers at work and revealing the magazine's production and editing rituals. The other thread surveys defining themes from each of the past ten decades, highlighting landmark pieces such as John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." The film examines how five editors shaped and modernized the publication while preserving core ideals, and it notes cultural moments like securing Taylor Swift's approval for the soundtrack and an editing process likened to a colonoscopy.

Read at The New Yorker