Season V Opener: Street Fight

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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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