« Is Coney starting to remind you of Atlantic Yards? | Main | The Week in Crime: Madiba Burglary »
June 6, 2010
Compelling documentary about Freddy's debuts this week at the Brooklyn International Film Festival
Atlantic Yards Report
Less than six weeks after Freddy's Bar & Backroom closed in the wake of eminent domain for Atlantic Yards, an intimate documentary (titled Freddy's) about the noted Prospect Heights watering hole will debut this week at the Brooklyn International Film Festival.
The film will be screened (tickets) on Wednesday June 9 at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema (7 pm) and on Friday June 11 at indieScreen in Williamsburg (6pm). The director is Vicente Rodriguez Ortega.
Having seen the film, I highly recommend it--it hits deeper than the whimsical trailer below, with lots of (engaging) talking heads, music, and some intriguing filmic composition. And I learned a bunch.
I have some questions and quibbles, of course, but I'll save them until after the first screening, where manager Donald O'Finn and other Freddy's staffers will be present for the Q&A.
...
In case you're wondering, the anti-folk song in the trailer is Bumbling Along, by Steve Espinola.
It's clear why it was chosen--it serves as a bridge between the artsy bohemianism of Freddy's and the development project that ended Freddy's.
Near the end of the song, the music pauses, and Espinola unleashes a rapid-fire rant: "The ones who are trying to destroy my multicultural neighborhood so they could build a basketball stadium and skycrapers. They are efficient, they are organized and sometimes murderously effective, but they are ethically short-circuited and spiritually adrift."
Then the whimsical music picks up, with the segue, "But they don't know what's going on, even they are bumbling along."
As noted, the documentary, though often lighthearted, doesn't stick at that level of whimsy.
Posted by steve at June 6, 2010 8:01 AM