Film Screenings / Programs / Series
THE OUTER BOROUGHS ON FILM
July 9 – July 11
June 9–11, 2010
As New York City becomes increasingly decentralized, with much (though not all) of Manhattan transformed into a gentrified, homogenous, affluent playground, the greater part of the city’s vibrancy and identity have become more deeply rooted in its extremities, the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and even Staten Island. Each is a city-sized entity with an energy, diversity, and cultural and historical richness that few other independent cities can lay claim to. To celebrate the outer boroughs, we’re devoting a weekend to several programs of short and feature-length documentaries, most from the 70s and 80s, that focus on some of NYC’s most memorable neighborhoods, communities, shops, and individuals. While Manhattan may remain disproportionately represented on screen, these works demonstrate the beauty, drama, and vitality that exist throughout the city.
Curated by Lauren Madow.
Special thanks to David Callahan & Elena Rossi-Snook (New York Library for the Performing Arts), Joy Holland (Brooklyn Public Library), Patrick Tarrant, Alexandra Cuesta, Hector Canonge, Barry Braverman, Ann-Carol Grossman, Bonnie Friedman, Ghislaine Hermanuz, Philip Maysles, Gary Weis, Alan Raymond, Herbert Danska, Frank Mouris & Caroline Ahlfors Mouris, Ryan Krivoshey (Cinema Guild), Roselly A. Torres Rojas (Third World Newsreel), and Russell Kummer (Broadway Video).
BRONX/QUEENS PROGRAM
Herbert Danska UPTOWN: PORTRAIT OF THE SOUTH BRONX (1965, 29 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; preserved with funding from the New York State Library, Division of Library Development.)
A study of a disadvantaged community within the city of New York, situated in a triangle at the southern tip of the borough of the Bronx, the film includes scenes of tenements, streets, parks, churches, markets, dance halls, and playgrounds, revealing the way of life of its people, their desperation and their hope.
Newsreel LINCOLN HOSPITAL (1970, 12 minutes, video)
When a city-run health clinic in the South Bronx fails to meet the needs of the city, local residents and health workers force a strike and then run the clinic themselves.
William Sarokin SIMPSON STREET (1979, 22 minutes, 16mm)
A brief but compelling history of New York’s devastated South Bronx, showing reasons for its decline, and introducing the people who live there and some of their efforts to rebuild their economy.
Patrick Tarrant SLOW BOAT TO QUEENS (2009, 8 minutes, video)
Tracing the vectored movement of the city’s mobile machines and people carriers, this film seeks to give perspective to what it means to be human in their midst.
Alexandra Cuesta RECORDANDO EL AYER (2004, 9 minutes, 16mm)
Memory and identity are observed through textures of everyday life in a portrait of Jackson Heights, home to a large Latin American immigrant population.
Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.
Friday, July 9 at 7:30.
BROOKLYN/STATEN ISLAND PROGRAM
Barry Braverman MURITA CYCLES (1978, 28 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.)
Braverman’s portrait of his father, who runs a shop selling used bicycles and innumerable other objects in Staten Island, is a remarkable, unexpectedly moving, and disarmingly candid character study.
Paul Schneider PEOPLE’S FIREHOUSE #1 (1979, 25 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.)
This film portrays the campaign by residents, mostly Polish, of Brooklyn’s Northside community as they battle to re-open their local firehouse, Engine Company 212, closed by the city’s budget cuts.
Renee Fraser & Ann-Carol Grossman KEEP ‘EM FLYING (1981, 29 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; preserved with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.)
Focusing on the sport of flying domesticated pigeons from Brooklyn rooftops, this film documents pigeon flyers caring for their flocks and trading stories and strays in the neighborhood pet shop.
Caroline Ahlfors Mouris & Frank Mouris CONEY (1975, 5 minutes, 16mm)
A personal and impressionistic response to a year in Coney Island.
Nick Manning HOT BAGELS (1979, 16 minutes, video)
A film capturing the process of making bagels by hand, along with commentary on the changing nature of the bagel business, and the bagel shop’s place in the neighborhood.
Sol Rubin TRINIDAD IN BROOKLYN (1985, 10 minutes, video)
A film about “a Mardi Gras of Black Islanders through an Orthodox Jewish area. The festive and pious seem to coexist.”
Total running time: ca. 120 minutes.
Saturday, July 10 at 6:00.
BROOKLYN PROGRAM
Diego Echeverria
LOS SURES
1983, 70 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
A portrait of one of NYC’s poorest neighborhoods, the primarily Hispanic section of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, known as Los Sures, the film examines the lives of five Puerto Rican residents of the area.
With:
Bonnie Friedman THE FLASHETTES (1977, 20 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.)
A documentary about the growing self-confidence of the members of a black, all-girl track team from Bedford-Stuyvesant.
BLACK JOURNAL: DIGGING FOR BLACK PRIDE (1971, 19 minutes, video)
This film documents a classroom program in which black children in Bedford-Stuyvesant learn about their 19th-century ancestors from the then newly-discovered village of Weeksville, and their African heritage.
Total running time: ca. 115 minutes.
Saturday, July 10 at 8:45.
BRONX, PROGRAM 1
Tony Batten
AIN’T GONNA EAT MY MIND
1972, 34 minutes, 16mm. Print courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
The story of the murder of a young gang member in the South Bronx and its aftermath, culminating in a summit meeting of gang leaders.
&
Gary Weis
80 BLOCKS FROM TIFFANY’S
1979, 67 minutes, video.
A documentary depicting the daily life of gangs within the context of the South Bronx. It deals primarily with two African American and Puerto Rican gangs known as the “Savage Skulls” and the “Savage Nomads”.
Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.
Sunday, July 11 at 5:30.
BRONX, PROGRAM 2
Alan & Susan Raymond
THE POLICE TAPES
1976, 90 minutes, video.
This groundbreaking, profoundly influential film reveals the life of a police precinct in the South Bronx in a period when the neighborhood was perhaps at its most blighted. Alan and Susan Raymond were allowed unprecedented access to the police force, interviewing the officers and following them on a typical day, and the result is an unforgettable document.
Sunday, July 11 at 8:00.
