Event
"Last Train to Pittsfield", "Beirut: The Last Home Movie" & dir. Q&A's [Masterclass: John Mullen]
Double Feature Screening
>>> 7:00 pm
"Last Train to Pittsfield"
(Dir. Tom Barry, 1976, 32 min.)
Train enthusiast Tom Barry narrates as he and camera crew record a sad event in transportation history that would otherwise have gone unnoticed the last passenger train ride from Danbury, CT to Pittsfield, MA. What begins as the nostalgic musings of a train fanatic as a rapidly changing country passes him by turns profound as Barry reflects more generally upon the decline in public transit with the growth in car culture and states its impact on both the environment and social interactivity. Co-filmmakers Tom Barry and John Mullen describe it best: "A film about a man crazy enough to ride last trains . . . and sane enough to want them back."
Followed by a conversation with writer/director Tom Barry.
>>>8:00 pm
Beirut: The Last Home Movie
Dir. Jennifer Fox, 1986, 120 min.
Beirut: The Last Home Movie chronicles three months in the life of an aristocratic Lebanese family who refuse to flee their family's palace located in a heavily-bombed Beirut neighborhood. The film takes us beyond the facts and statistics of nightly news reports into one family's experience of war. By capturing the visceral, subjective experience of a family living in war-torn Lebanon, Beirut: The Last Home Movie translates a baffling political crisis into its most human terms.
Followed by a conversation with director Jennifer Fox.
Festival Passes available - https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/115378
ABOUT JOHN MULLEN:
John Mullen, Film Editor 1935-2008: From Trailers to Docs
Bumping and slapping moviolas like pinball machines....
"John was a New Yorker and gifted cameraman who over four decades ago started cutting trailers to support an early marriage and family. Still a writer at Look Magazine I used to watch him on West 57th St., surrounded by bins of 35mm clips from the latest Hollywood costume drama. Having un-stitched the best efforts of top writers, editors and soundmen he now began to re-stitch them into 15-second TV teasers and more "leisurely" (his word) 30- and 60-second theater versions. The work was fast, physical and audible -- SLAM (lock in the latest from the cutting table), WHIRRR...BAM, stop, unlock, back to cut and tape. John would grunt, growl, mutter, the moviola his humble pinball machine...then smile or laugh when pleased, inviting me to take a peek. A year later I sat next to him at a rented moviola with a 16mm port in his own home as he worked nights and weekends on my own humble, linear story about a railroad train, liking what he saw but suggesting we shoot more. He became my partner and the result was a good film.
No more un-stitching for John. Call him a mechanic or midwife he was now hooked on the goal of helping talented, courageous directors like the four women you will meet this week capture lightning in a bottle. Not always easy to work with he nevertheless respected a filmmaker's vision, undaunted by an infinity of ways to convey it. I believe he had total recall of images and sound plus the energy, literally, to cut and paste. Like all good editors he has been unsung because audiences don't notice the editing! But the judges and juries of over a dozen major film awards certainly did."
- Tom Barry, Film Director
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LocationMaysles Cinema
343 Lenox Ave.
New York, NY 10027
United States
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| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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