Dear Bowery Neighbors and Friends,
In honor of the Lower East Side History Month, the
Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and Anthology Film Archives
proudly present a unique 4-day film festival:
From Mae West to Punk: The Bowery on Film
May 16-19 at Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave @ 2nd Street.
The Bowery on film dates to the earliest days of cinema, when its
rowdy, amoral reputation provided titillating material for early
peep shows, one-reelers, and silent era features like Raoul Walsh’s
gangster classic REGENERATION (1915). It figured even more
prominently in the early sound era when Boweryesque song and
slang were exploited to the full in films like theTHE BOWERY (Walsh, 1933)
and the raunchy SHE DONE HIM WRONG(1933), in which Mae West told
Cary Grant to come up and see her sometime.
The ravaged lives of the Bowery’s skid row have long fascinated artists,
as seen in the documentary classic ON THE BOWERY (1956).
Scott Elliott’s SLUMMING IT is wonderful overview of Bowery history,
and Mandy Stein’s BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE (2009) is a poignant
appreciation of Hilly Kristal’s legendary CBGB, made during the club’s final days.
There are rare shorts that show glimpses of the Bowery from the 1910s through the
1990s, including a rarely seen episode of the influential TV drama NAKED CITY,
and even Bugs Bunny shows up to chronicle his streetwise beginnings on
the Lower East Side and the Bowery.
With the Bowery imperiled by developers at every turn, the series concludes with
THE VANISHING CITY (2009), a powerful look at the forces that threaten to
obliterate the character and culture of our communities.
Recently named to the National Register of Historic Places, the Bowery is one of
a handful of New York City streets with international name recognition.
While this ambitious series only scratches the surface of the street’s broad historical
importance, it offers a rare opportunity to glimpse the iconic street from several
different time periods and perspectives, some of them rare and many in
gorgeous 35mm restorations.
Sincerely,
David Mulkins, Chair
Bowery Alliance of Neighbors
