"Hart Island" tells the story of the uses of Hart Island, which has served as an internment locale for homeless men, drug addicts, and prisoners, and as a defense training ground. The work alternates images of Hart Island and the activity there with visual text describing its history. Close-up views of men unloading boxes and digging holes are seen. As the text gradually makes clear, these men are inmates from Rikers Island prison on a work crew. Their job is to bury the unclaimed dead (including children) of New York City. The viewer realizes that the boxes are coffins and that the holes being dug are graves. There is very little sound score to the work. At one point, the burial crew leader is interviewed briefly. The work was broadcast as a segment of episode 404 (1988), and episode 105 (1991), of "New Television. Approximate date: 1988
