Everything Is Different Now: Rockaway After the Storm
Rockaway is a peninsula guarding New York City’s Atlantic shore, a barrier reef that became a summer working-class vacation mecca from the early 1900s through the ’50s. Documentarian Jennifer Callahan interviews residents and sketches the checkered history. Rockaway became a target for ill-conceived “urban renewal” in the ’50s; many of its distinctive bungalows were razed in favor of public housing towers, but preservationists and neighborhood groups stemmed the tide. And then came Superstorm Sandy…
EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW Trailer from jennifer callahan on Vimeo.
The Missing Ingredient: What is the Recipe for Success?
The “success” of the title refers to restaurants. In a flash-in-the-pan era where new ones peak early and fall fast, this documentary investigates the recipe behind New York restaurants recognized as “institutions,” particularly Gino’s (which had a 65-year run) and Pescatore (a 20-something struggling to endure). Food is a factor to be sure, along with staff, but most of the Manhattanites interviewed agree that consistency is what turns restaurants into legends.
Tikkun
The Israeli film Tikkun runs counter to contemporary moviemaking trends. Shot in black and white, Tikkun dispenses with music and, with its sparse dialogue, is quieter than a silent movie. The story follows a yeshiva student who dies after an accident—or nearly so. The paramedics pronounce him dead but his father brings him back with CPR—but not entirely back, it seems. Writer-director Avishai Sivan’s Tikkun has won awards at several international film festivals.
