What is Staten Island? This, is Staten Island.

VIDEO BY Matthew Chirico

“Let me ask you a question. Have you truly been to Staten Island? Like REALLY been here? When I take the ferry home from work every day I hear, “What’s in Staten Island?”, “What do they even have there?”, “What do they do there?” and an abundance of other questions from tourists, which partly sparked the idea for this project. Well, if you’ve taken the ferry to St. George only to see the Statue of Liberty for free, just to make a U-turn inside the terminal & get back on the same boat to head back to Manhattan…then no, you haven’t been here. What’s wrong with leaving the terminal, exploring, walking around a bit, maybe having something to eat?

Living on Staten Island for 24 years has given me some insight into the so-called “Forgotten Borough”. Staten Island, actually, is the Borough of Parks. More than one-third of its landmass is protected parkland, so there are plenty of hiking trails, scenic bike paths, wild deer, hundreds of species of birds, miles of beach, and just good ole’ peace and quiet to be found, along with beautiful architecture, lakes and hidden gems. So visit Staten Island and see what it’s all about!”

Song: A Thousand Years – David A. Molina
https://soundcloud.com/david_a_molina…

Project Total Time: 8 Months: 3 months location scouting, 5 months shooting, 3 hours of footage, 1 week of editing.

Want to buy the drone Chirico used? DJI’s Mavic Pro, buy it here!
http://click.dji.com/AMBUpcdWl8DWhUvv…