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Reviews
Happy Mother's Day (1963)
Ricky Leacock and "being there."
Iconic Ricky Leacock' early direct cinema documentary Happy Mother's Day - 1963 (I could have been content with less narration) exploration into "being there."
A film style I personally emulated in in my own early work as a filmmaker / cinematographer (Harlem School 1970 (1970) , Dramatization: The Island (1977), Thursday's Child (1984) all 100% without narration or interviews.
The golden age of direct cinema lasted only a short period of time late 1950's mid 1970's and a lot of what was shot then seems crude today related to current digital technology and techniques. However, from a emotional and "feeling" "being there" standpoint I feel a majority of those original trailblazing efforts by Jean Rouche, Robert Drew, Ricky Leacock, D. A Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Chris Marker, Shirley Clarke, Frederick Wiseman. Alan Raymond, Barbara Kopple, others, had a much more simplistic, emotional and empathetic gravis to them which I especially appreciated and revered.
How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at his Farm in Normandy (2014)
An insightful loving moment captured forever of "being there" with Ricky Leacock.
I love this portrait of Ricky Leacock and his life with Valerie living in Normandy in 2000. Cooking, recounting his past career with friend and fellow filmmaker Les Blank, and anecdote after anecdote about life and his forever love of just being in the moment with camera and self.
Harlem School 1970 (2018)
Harlem School 1970
1-"A very special wonderful document...shot beautifully" -Chris Hegedus Academy Award nominated documentary Filmmaker.
2-"What an important and prescient film! You have done impressive work, Phil." -Bill Moyers American journalist / political commentator.
3-"We feel a real kinship and hope we can make the Los Angeles screening." Award winning documentary filmmakers - Blue Field Productions.
4-"An astonishing documentary." -Ron Simon Curator, Television & Radio at Paley Center for Media.
5-"Your film looked great...loved the B/W cinematography. A valuable time capsule documentary." -Alan Raymond, Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker.
6-"HARLEM SCHOOL 1970 made me more than a little nostalgic for the days when the Maysles, Pennebaker, Leacock, Wiseman, et al, first captured my own imagination with this new cinema. Your film reminded me of the patience and discipline it took to wait for the moment." -Dave Davidson Documentary award winning filmmaker & Chair of CCNY Graduate MFA Film program.
7-"You did it! Harlem School 1970 gave me the feeling of being there. It is an important social document and timeless. I can't imagine how you made it through, making the film AND teaching! Wow." -Jill Drew Producer, Director and General Manager of Robert Drew Associates.
8-"The skill I see in this film, working alone with a Bolex and capturing audio, covering the workflow, as if you had several producers and cameras scoping the area, and showing the attention to detail...artistry beyond measure. A great film and more." -Alan Lebow Director of Photography award winning filmmaker - Alan Lebow Productions.
9-"HARLEM SCHOOL 1970 was one of the very select group of finalists during our viewing and deliberation process and we recognized it as an exceptional and high-quality work." -Michael Lumpkin Director, AFI DOCS 2018 Film Festival.
10-"I was just knocked out by the caring exhibited by teachers and personnel even with all the madness of one's surrounding." -Eric Kulberg Executive Producer, Universal Media, Inc.
11-"Harlem School 1970," a "fly on the wall" documentary, revealing a day in that world, one I would have never gotten to experience otherwise. A true documentation of life at a fascinating place during a unique time without being emotionally manipulative." -Jackson Upperco USC Film Department Graduate student.
12-"Viewing 'Harlem School 1970' did not disappoint! The Photography is superb, and your matching of "wild sound" was executed perfectly. I am amazed that you got so much close-up footage without anyone breaking the fourth wall. It certainly is remarkable that there aren't more movies like this around, but the reward, all these years later, is a big one. A terrific documentary. -Gary Rutkowski Broadcast Archivist, University of Wyoming.
13-"Nicely shot, in crisp b&w with a lot of period flavor and emphasis on interesting close-ups. Interesting details revealed (you have a good eye for detail). The high point in the film is the kids singing "This Land Is Your Land," which you wisely reprise." -Tim Brooks Author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946-Present."
27- "BRAVO! Your documentary is a wonderful portrait
of a Harlem School. It captures a period of time in a
community that is rarely seen. I have several documentary
photography books in black and white and your film evokes
that work for me reminiscent of the impactful photography
by Roy DeCarava and Gordon Parks. Again, BRAVO!"
Savanna Washington
Producer / Director
Aardvark Alley Films
Lecturer, Adjunct Assistant Professor
The Borough of Manhattan Community College,
and The New School.
28- "Your interactive decision and ability to record history
a half century ago...without hard evidence such as you
have provided, what proof could there be that any of this really
happened?-that maybe it was all imagined. Malto Grazie."
Hugh Downs
Television host and Author.
29- "I viewed Harlem School 1970 last night and I was absolutely stunned!
This kind of unfettered access and camerawork doesn't exist anymore. Today,
everyone gets so held up on privacy rights or burying their noses in media.
Not everything in life needs a Werner Herzog or David Attenborough narration.
You were truly a fly-on-the-wall and the school spoke for itself. C. S.30 was a functioning
school that educated, entertained, and disciplined much like almost any other school now
or then. People will appreciate this work."
Eric Appleman
Film Critic
30- "I have watched a lot of documentaries and 'Harlem School
1970' is unique as an early example of 'direct cinema,' innovative
filmmaking unconventional style for its time, providing a rare look inside
a public elementary school in Harlem New York, circa April 1970. What is
remarkable to me is watching the kids reacting outside and inside the
classroom without playing to the camera. It truly felt like I was
eavesdropping, experiencing kids being kids during a typical day in 1970."
Ed Robertson
Radio Producer & Host of TV Confidential and Author.
31- "I found 'Harlem School 1970' exhilarating for its historicity, capturing
children who just never stop moving. I was quite captivated not only by the
activity in the classrooms, the lunchroom, and the schoolyard, but by the way
you photographed and edited life within the school.
'Harlem School 1970' is a documentary exemplified for its rarity and timeliness,
and should be seen and made public.
Laurance Kardish
Former MoMA Senior Film Curator (1999-2012).
32- "An historic documentary."
Amy Heller
Co-founder Milestone Films.
33- "Phil, thank you for sharing this beautiful and heartfelt documentary. The children
are so wonderful and the scenes so universal, that it could be from any time and any
place, much less a half-century ago. I hope it will be archived at the Schoenberg as
well as made available through various channels. A remarkable achievement!"
Cynthia Karasek
Chair of The Borough of Manhattan Community College (Communications), Media Arts Department.
34- "HARLEM SCHOOL 1970," all beautifully understated - a real slice of urban history.
The Congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, telling those kids they just had to believe they
could be anyone and it would happen...well recent times haven't seen that come true."
Steve Cole
Television Director and Producer - Ascot England, United Kingdom.
35- "I have seen Phil Gries' "Harlem School 1970" and think it's excellent. It is absolutely
worth screening and it would be wonderful if the new digital version would be released."
Sandra Schulberg
President - IndieCollect / Oscar nominated Producer and Film Preservationist.
36- "I enjoyed watching "Harlem School 1970" a great deal. Quite enlightening.
Your documentary is clearly a passion project and beautifully executed. I can see why
the likes of Chris Hegedus and Bill Moyers said what they did about your film."
Wilfred Frost
Managing Director, Paradine Productions Anchor, CNBC's Closing Bell.
37- "This film, "Harlem School 1970" is a rare, rare treat to screen. It is an incredible
time capsule allowing us to see where we have been and to think about where we are going."
Jessica Green
Curator / Programmer "Made In Harlem: Class of '68" Third World Newsreel, Documentary Forum CCNY & Maysles Cinema.
38- "Watching "Harlem School 1970" took me back to my urban public school elementary
school days around the same time and with similar majority Black student body. A revealing
trip back in time."
Cornelius Moore
California Newsreel Co-Director (Social Documentary Film Center)
1963-2022 Media for Social Change.
39- "Harlem School 1970 is a thoroughly brilliant work. And you did it without Talking Heads!
A major accomplishment. I loved your cinema verité camerawork. I could watch it endlessly...
so, so wonderful. You are holding a genuine rare gem."
Lisa Rinzler
Emmy Award Winning Director of Photography.
40- "Co-producer Molly Rokosza sent me your Harlem School 1970 trailer and your interview with
Ron Simon at The Paley Cerner for Media. What I saw looked really interesting. I'd love to see the
whole cut. Could you please send me a link or DVD to my home address in Cambridge, MA?"
Errol Morris
Academy Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker.
41- "I thought the film was excellent. It took me back, reminiscing to when I was 8 years old going
to school to learn, to play and have fun with my classmates. It was a happy and peaceful time for me.
I used to look forward to going to school. I was just overwhelmed revisiting the lunch line, and the
fights in the school yard. I am wishing that I could go back to school now. It was so awesome for you
to be able to capture those moments of teachers having so much patience with the kids who were so
hyper but at the same time, we were learning one on one. We were kids at that time. Just being kids
and you Mr. Gries captured that. Your documentary is awesome. It was awesome."
Josephine Coulter
Immediate reaction after screening at the Premiere of the digitally restored documentary, HARLEM SCHOOL 1970, at the Paley Center for Media by Harlem
School Student whom Phil Gries taught in the third grade over 50 years ago.
42- Review by Paul Lee, visiting scholar, Department of African American Studies, University of
California, Berkley -
"A GREAT TIME CAPSULE DEPICTING THE CRESTING OF THE 'BLACK CONSCIOUNSESS' MOVEMENT
OF THE 1960's-EARLY '70s. Phil Gries' "HARLEM SCHOOL 1970," without realizing it, has created a
peerless cultural documentary , circa 1970, memorializing a seminal period in Black Americans'
five-century sojourn. "HARLEM SCHOOL 1970" should be considered one of the most important
motion picture documents of that signal cultural movement. Hands down, this film is one of the best
visual records of a cultural shift that was then the occurring movement of the 'black' world.
The film is DRENCHED in meaningful 'black' historical and cultural imagery! INDISPENSABLE viewing."
Autumn Fire (1931)
I remember Herman G. Weinberg
I had Herman G. Weinberg as an instructor when I was an undergraduate student attending City College of New York where I majored in Motion Picture Production...attaining a BA degree, graduating in January 1966. The first film course I, yours truly Phil Gries, ever took at CCNY was the History Of Film and Weinberg was my teacher, in the Fall of 1962. The film department was one of the premiere and oldest in the country at the time, founded by Hans Richter in 1941.For a short time Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen were students there, in 1947 & 1953, respectively, studying film production. Herman G. Weinberg reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock...his gate and physical resemblance. His daughter would come to class quite often. He would show the classics to us.Many were silent films, including his own, one and only, directorial and cinematic achievement, "Autumn Fire." Weinberg was very proud of his film. I was impressed. Hard to believe how time does fly...54 years, yet not really so long ago in my mind!
Happy Days (1970)
Available nine of ten TV Audio Air Checks of HAPPY DAYS (1970)
Archival Television Audio (www.atvaudio.com) has nine of the ten HAPPY DAYS complete 52 minute broadcasts,(June 25-August 27, 1970...missing July 16) preserved on 1/4" reel to reel master tapes...all recorded at the time of the airing for direct line pristine sound quality.The archive, Archival Television Audio, Inc. archives over 15,000 hours of mostly "lost" and not presently available TV broadcast AUDIO circa 1946 thru 1982, at which time networks and local stations wiped 2" Quad tapes for space and financial reasons. Only a few of the 10 original HAPPY DAYS programs can be found at UCLA and at PALEY archives. To date ATA has the most BROADCAST EXAMPLES and in excellent sound condition. And, it is the SOUND that makes this nostalgic trip back to the 30's so special.