Zoey and the helicopter

Some of the most iconic images of 1990s Los Angeles were captured by video from helicopters, nicknamed "eyes in the sky." The 1992 Los Angeles riots and the low‐speed police pursuit of O.J. Simpson captured the national zeitgeist. Helicopters vigorously documented these historical events in addition to Los Angeles' daily danse macabre. High‐speed pursuits, floods, brush fires, freeway pileups, and other disasters made local news terrifying and mesmerizing. ❧ Among the most engaging and prolific of the helicopter reporters in the 1990s was Bob Tur. With a silver tongue and an uncanny ability to spot a disaster from the air, he is responsible for one of the most unique documentations of 1990s Los Angeles. This thesis, Zoey and the Helicopter, is a documentary‐in‐progress about Tur’s work and transition from male to female. Tur, who legally changed his name to Zoey last year, is as difficult to categorize as the city she documented for two decades. ❧ This work‐in‐progress is comprised of Tur's helicopter video archive and interviews with Tur, former wife and collaborator Marika Gerrard, and longtime Los Angeles TV news director Jeff Wald. The thesis is an outline produced in part to help raise funds for a feature‐length film about Tur.