Currently Crowdfunding: ‘Burying our Brothers’
The documentary project Burying our Brothers set out to trace how ridesharing platforms reshaped the finances of New York City taxi drivers and contributed to a wave of personal crises. Filmmaker Greg Lovett built the film around the sudden drop in medallion values that left many owner-operators carrying debt far beyond what their daily fares could cover.
Lovett framed the story through the lens of immigrant drivers who had treated a medallion as their route into the middle class. The film records how the same permit that once sold for a million dollars later traded for a fraction of that price, pushing families into bankruptcy and foreclosure proceedings.
By the time the crowdfunding campaign launched, the production had already assembled interviews with drivers, lenders, and city officials. The stated goal was to finish editing and secure festival placements that could keep the subject in public view.
The project referenced three of the 2018 suicides that drew citywide attention: Douglas Schifter, who died outside City Hall; Roy Kim, found in his home; and Kenny Chow, recovered from the East River. Reporting at the time placed those deaths inside a cluster of at least eight driver suicides linked to mounting loan payments.
Legacy of the 2018 Taxi Driver Suicides
The 2018 deaths became a catalyst for sustained organizing. Families, unions, and advocates used the public record of those cases to press the city for structural fixes rather than one-time assistance. Their efforts produced the first formal acknowledgment that medallion debt had crossed from private hardship into a municipal policy failure.
Medallion Debt Relief Outcomes
After driver hunger strikes in 2021, the city rolled out the Medallion Relief Program and its successor, MRP+. The programs capped principal balances near $170,000 and set monthly payment ceilings for participating owners. By 2025, more than $473 million in restructuring had reached roughly 2,000 medallion holders. Several hundred drivers remain outside the agreements because certain lenders declined to participate, leaving those loans at original terms.
Current State of NYC Taxi Industry
Medallion prices have settled between $115,000 and $175,000 depending on financing structure. Yellow cabs still logged more than 41 million trips in 2024 and generated $965 million in fare revenue, yet owner-operators report thin margins and restricted access to new credit. Rideshare competition continues, though the market has stabilized enough that medallions now change hands at predictable, if modest, valuations.
Greg Lovett’s Subsequent Work
Lovett established Image Essays in 2018 as a nonprofit vehicle for long-form projects on social and political subjects. The company’s first release, Delay, Deny, Hope You Die, examined toxic exposures at overseas military bases and contributed to later veterans’ legislation. Lovett has maintained the same editorial approach for subsequent proposals, treating documentary as a tool for surfacing overlooked data and prompting institutional response.
Greg Lovett: Producer/Director/Editor
Greg has over 30 years of experience in the film and television industry. He began his career as a television director for the Houston Astros baseball team and, upon relocating to Holland in the late 1980s, worked as a producer-director in the Dutch television industry for over 10 years. He was later involved in projects that led to the introduction of broadband internet and interactive TV to Holland.
In 2018, he founded Image Essays, a nonprofit production company that specializes in the development of media projects of social political and historical interest that open minds, provoke dialogue, and encourage positive social change.
Greg believes documentaries can generate empathy in audiences, illuminate new perspectives, activate powerful emotions, and influence social change. Previously, his award-winning documentary Delay, Deny, Hope You Die drew attention to the plight of soldiers poisoned on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ultimately this movie provided a platform for the cause and helped lead to new legislation for veterans.
The crowdfunding campaign referenced in 2019 has no public record of completion or release. The underlying economic questions the film examined, however, remain visible in current medallion values, ongoing debt negotiations, and the daily arithmetic still facing owner-drivers who purchased permits at peak prices.
