Depot Docs Documentary Series

To Be Heard -- at Depot Docs January 20th 2012

2012-01-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Check out the buzz about our next film. Here's the trailer:

Project NiM this week! And upcoming films...

2011-11-16T08:34:00.001-08:00

Be sure to book your tickets for the wonderful film Project NiM this Friday at the Depot Theatre. Click here to get tickets: Project NiM at Depot Docs this Friday.

Upcoming Films (mark those calendars!!):

Jan 20th: To Be Heard. Special guest, director, Deborah Shaffer

March 23rd: Page One. Special guest, producer, Josh Braun

Click the film titles to see trailers and learn more about these extraordinary films Depot Docs is bringing to us this season! Below are descriptions of the films. Mark those calendars, and hope to see you there!

About TO BE HEARD:

Lives and language on the edge: Three teens from the Bronx tell their stories of friendship, love and struggle, and show how a radical poetry class can ignite change.

To Be Heard is the story of three teens from the South Bronx whose struggle to change their lives begins when they start to write poetry. As writing and reciting become vehicles for their expressions of love, friendship, frustration, and hope, we watch these three youngsters emerge as accomplished self-aware artists, who use their creativity to alter their circumstances.

A verité film, intimately shot over four years, To Be Heard is the story of three friends and the love that develops between them as they evolve as artists. This “tripod,” as they call it, is bound by proximity, circumstance, and poetry. To Be Heard is also the story of how language links people. Pearl is the support and soul of the three; Karina is the passion and heart; and Anthony is the energy and physicality. In a community where friendships are kept tenuous for many reasons, these three build a bond based on language, respect, and the need to survive.

What will happen to these three kids? Will they find a way to articulate their dreams? Will that articulation manifest meaningful change? Does language contain the power to transform? Perhaps this film is simply about the lives of three kids from the ghetto and their struggle to survive. Perhaps it is also about the poet in all young people, the struggling artist in all of us, seeking to emerge. Embedded in the story of these three teens is the tale of their path as writers and a look at the source of their inspiration. That seed of inspiration comes in the form of a radical poetry class, called Power Writing, taught by a trio of outsider teachers. Early on we meet Joe, Amy and Roland. Given the heightened volume of the educational debate these days, their message and approach merits close attention. Not a part of any school faculty or formal curriculum, these three come bearing a simple gift in the form of a motto—If you don’t learn to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you. There are very few secrets to their teaching methods, very few tricks. Their style of committed pedagogy is less about instruction and more about empowerment—simply stated, they are there to listen closely, if the writer wants to be heard.

About PAGE ONE:

PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as the main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. It gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-the-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching that produce the “daily miracle” of a great news organization. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of journalists continuing to produce extraordinary work under increasingly difficult circumstances.

At the heart of the film is the burning question on the minds of everyone who cares about a rigorous American press, Times lover or not: what will happen if the fast-moving future of media leaves behind the fact-based, original reporting that helps to define our society?

Project NiM, Friday, Nov. 18th, 7:30pm

2011-10-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

The story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone on the upper West Side in the 1970s.

Check out the trailer http://www.project-nim.com/

And book your tickets Project NIM at Depot Docs now at BrownPaperTickets.com!

to reserve tickets (845) 424-3900

2011-09-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Correction, the phone number for the Depot Theatre is (845) 424-3900 . Or you can always use BrownPaperTickets.com and pick your own seat. Don't miss this great film, our season opener, "If a Tree Falls"

Buy Your Tickets ONLINE, Season VI Begins!!

2011-09-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

We hope you can join us on September 30th at 7:30pm for the Season VI opener, IF A TREE FALLS. The director, Marshall Curry, will be there for the Q&A and reception. You can buy your tickets now at BrownPaperTickets.com.

SEASON VI BEGINS SOON!

2011-08-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

Coming soon to Depot Docs, Marshall Curry's electrifying new film, IF A TREE FALLS

Buy Your Tickets Online

2011-06-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

You can get your tickets to the Depot Docs season ending screening of BUCK, and you can even pick your own seats...

Great Article on BUCK

2011-06-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

The New York Times' David Carr writes about BUCK.

POSTER

2011-05-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Philipstown.info piece about BUCK

2011-05-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Philipstown.info's Alison Rooney has written a lovely article about the film Buck and Toby Shimin, the genius editor behind the magic of this film. Your humble DD blogger apologizes that she didn't even realize that the inimitable Peter Rundquist, another DD committee member was also involved in the film, writing some of the haunting music that makes the film so beautiful.

Hope we see you there!

CBS Morning News and the LA Times Love BUCK

2011-05-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Trailer for BUCK

2011-05-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

BUCK, the film JULY 8TH SEASON ENDER!

2011-05-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Great quotes from this beautiful film:

"A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems..."

"It'll make you better in ways you didn't think related to horses."

"God had him in mind when he made a cowboy."

Check out the trailer and more info here:

Trailer for BUCK

BUCK the film's Facebook Page

BUCK official website

Get your tickets now! 424-3900 BUCK, July 8th, 7:30pm

Films for the Rest of the Season!

2011-02-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
our brand new state-of-the-art projector and screen will be graced by three great films for the rest of the 2010-2011 Season!
Watch this space for more about these great films:
Crude for April 1st
For Once in My Life April 29th
Buck NEW DATE: July 8th, 7:30pm

Season V Opener: Street Fight

2010-09-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to reserve your tickets for STREET FIGHT, Depot Docs' Opening Film. Friday September 24th at 7:30pm, followed by wine and refreshments reception afterward. Director Marshall Curry will be on hand for a Q&A after the film. Call 424-3900 to reserve your tickets!

Marshall Curry's STREET FIGHT

2010-09-05T12:38:00.001-07:00

DEPOT DOCS SEASON V PREMIER!!

Variety - John Anderson
“It's a hard fast film that needs airing now... Street Fight is briskly edited, imaginatively scored by James Baxter and vastly entertaining... Even if you know the outcome, Street Fight will keep you on the edge of your seat."

The New York Times - Jason George
“Engrossing...Pulls no punches.”

The New Yorker - David Denby
"Extraordinary... In brief, Marshall Curry, the young director of Street Fight, has hit the documentary jackpot."

The Cats of Mirikitani

2010-06-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

Great review of the upcoming season-ending Film, The Cats of Mirikitani by James O'Barr:

DEPOT DOCS: “THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI”

By James O’Barr

Linda Hattendorf’s luminous directorial debut, “The Cats of Mirikitani,” scheduled for screening at the Philipstown Depot Theatre on Friday, June 18, brings Depot Docs 4th season to a powerful, transcendent close. Ms. Hattendorf, who produced and co-edited the film, also plays an unusual but important on-screen role, as friend and advocate for its principle subject, Tsutomu “Jimmy” Mirikitani.

Mr. Mirikitani was 80 years old, and had been living on the streets of Greenwhich Village for some years, surviving by selling his paintings, when Ms. Hattendorf, who lived in the neighborhood, befriended him in early 2001. She had made a career as a documentary editor, but was fascinated by the small, wizened artist and his strange and beautiful work, and began to film him in what she calls a “simple verite portrait of one homeless man.” Much of that filming took place in the shadow of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, and when the towers came down, and Ms. Hattendorf found Mr. Mirikitani struggling to survive in the toxic smoke and dust and the disorienting chaos that followed, she invited him to stay with her in her small apartment.

The grudging acceptance of that kindness and generosity was a step that became a redemptive journey for Jimmy Mirikitani, as Ms. Hattendorf, and we, learn his tragic history. The journey begins in Sacramento, California, where he is born in 1920, to Hiroshima, where he is educated, back to the United States in 1938, to escape the growing militarism, and to pursue his vocation as an artist. Living with his sister and her family in Seattle when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he and his sister were forced into separate internment camps, she in Idaho, he in Tule Lake, California. After the war, and his eventual release from continuing illegal internment, he arrived in New York City, hoping to at last find his way as an artist. What he found instead was training as a cook, and eventually, a job as a live-in cook on Park Avenue. When his employer died in the late 1980’s, he was close to 70 years old, and without a home, a job, or a family. He started living on the street, in Washington Square Park, and his life as an artist really began. His paintings, in black pen or brush, and bright pastels, of fishes, cats, bleak desert landscapes, and blood-red skylines, were an obsessive visualization of a haunted, deeply painful history. Only his meeting with the sympathetic and caring fellow artist, Ms. Hattendorf, in SoHo in 2001, allows the stories sketched in the paintings to be fully told, and, in the process, to bring Jimmy Mirikitami home.

“The Cats of Mirikitani” will be shown at the Philipstown Depot Theatre, Garrison’s Landing, on Friday, June 18th, at 7:30 PM. There will be a Q&A with the director, Linda Hattendorf, and a reception, following the screening. For reservations (recommended) call the Depot Theatre at (845) 424-3900, or go to philipstowndepottheatre.org.

NEXT UP ON DEPOT DOCS!

2010-04-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

May 28th, 2010, 7:30 pm at the Depot Theater in Garrison NY: WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe by Emily and Sarah Kunstler. One of the most infamous lawyers of the twentieth century, William Kunstler liked to shake things up. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father's life and legacy: from middle-class family man to celebrated radical activist to "the most hated lawyer in America." For Tickets, call the Depot Theater Box Office: 424-3900 Tickets are $20, special guests, the directors: Emily and Sarah Kunstler, reception to follow. Join us!

2010-03-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Member of the Depot Docs Community,

I hope to see you this Friday at our screening of “Don’t Look Back”, with documentary legend D.A. Pennebaker.

For the last four seasons Depot Docs has brought remarkable films and their creators to Philipstown -- from the story of Granny D Haddock’s campaign for the Senate in Run Granny, Run, to the haunting profile of Iraq’s first democractic election in My Country, My Country, to the story of Philipe Petit’s aerial tightrope between the twin towers in Man on Wire – and the community has responded with unprecedented enthusiasm.

I am writing you now because we are making an effort to upgrade our projection system so that we can show the films in sharper High-Definition, on a new and better screen. This new system will help deliver even higher impact cinematic experiences, and will prevent our little theater from falling behind the technical curve.

In an act of great generosity, our long-time sponsor, Matt Shipman, has offered to make a initial matching grant of $3,000 towards our upgrade budget. We must now raise the remaining $3,000, and I am asking for your help in reaching this goal.

A check for any amount will be a tremendous help. Our goal is to have the full amount raised by the end of our fourth season, on June 18th. To contribute, all you need to do is drop a check in the mail to the Depot Theater, (P.O. Box 221, Garrison, NY 10524) made payable to “Philipstown Perf. Arts Dev. Corp.” and make sure to write DD PROJ FUND on the memo. Or bring a check to one of the amazing films coming up this spring. We will keep an honor roll of all the contributors and project it on the screen at the theater before our films begin.

Thanks for considering this request and for helping Depot Docs continue to bring the best of documentary film to Philipstown.

Best Regards,

Stephen Ives

Don't Look Back, Special Guest D.A. Pennebaker

2010-03-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Reserve your place for a memorable evening! The renowned documentarian D.A. Pennebaker will present this groundbreaking film. Check out a trailer at our website.

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Documentary by Stephen Ives airing on PBS this week!

2010-03-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

Airing nationally on PBS
Wednesday, March 3rd at 8:00pm
Produced and Directed by Stephen Ives and Amanda Pollak
Edited by George O’Donnell
Coordinating Producer Michelle Ferrari
Associate Producer Lindsey Megrue
Production Associate Dan Amigone
Cinematography
Stephen McCarthy, Sam Shinn, Buddy Squires, Andrew Young
Sound Recording
Bernie Beaudry, Daniel Brooks, Jim Gilchrist, Joe Maggio, Caleb Mo,
Mark Roy, George Shafnacker, Phil Turner
Executive Producers
Peter Kunhardt and Dyllan McGee, William Grant, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Series Producers: Barak Goodman and Sue Williams.

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January 22, 2010: The Way We Get By

2009-11-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

Jan 22, 2010, 7:30pm
The Way We Get By
SPECIAL GUEST:
Director Aron Gaudet

See a trailer from The Way We Get By.
Official Website:
http://www.thewaywegetbymovie.com/

"The Way We Get By" is a deeply moving film about life and how to live it. Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters - a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.

When its three subjects aren't at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Joan, a grandmother of eight, has a deep connection to the soldiers she meets. The sanguine Jerry keeps his spirits up even as his personal problems mount. And the veteran Bill, who clearly has trouble taking care of himself, finds himself contemplating his own death. Seeking out the telling detail rather than offering sweeping generalizations, the film carefully builds stories of heartbreak and redemption, reminding us how our culture casts our elders, and too often our soldiers, aside. More important, regardless of your politics, "The Way We Get By" celebrates three unsung heroes who share their love with strangers who need and deserve it.

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Man on Wire from Season III: Philippe Petit!

2009-11-07T23:55:00.001-08:00

The wonderful Philippe Petit surprised us all (except Steve, you rascal) when he appeared last March after our screening of the great documentary about him, Man on Wire, which had just won the Oscar for best Documentary. Steve Ives, the documentary filmmaker and creator of Depot Docs is our host, and Maureen Ryan, a producer of the film, was also present for the Q&A.

Thanks to Toby Shiimin who put together this lovely clip from the generous QandA Petit granted us.

We welcome your comments below, just click on "comment" and let us know what you think!

Be Sure to Purchase Your Tickets Ahead of Time!

2009-11-07T23:19:00.000-08:00

Depot Docs' next offering is Food, Inc. on November 20th at 7:30 pm. Check out what other films are upcoming in Season IV of Depot Docs at the Philipstown Depot Theater website.

Our special guest for this screening is the Director of the film, Robert Kenner.

"You'll Never Look at Dinner the Same Way" may be the film's tagline, but not to worry, the reception is adhering to a strict code of food sourcing in the spirit of the lessons of the film.

We look forward to your thoughts about the film after you've viewed it (or if you've seen it already) right here on this blog. Simply click on "comment" below and leave us your thoughts. Thanks!

WELCOME!

2009-10-21T09:48:00.001-07:00

Depot Docs next film is scheduled for November 20th at 7:30 pm.

The reception following the screening of Food Inc. is hosted by The Glynwood Center, with special organic food provided by the Raw Life Food Co-op.

Come be inspired and prepare for the changes to come by purchasing your tickets TODAY. Call Julie Heckert at the Depot Theater, 424-3900.