A movie to make socialist New Yorkers proud: Tom Boothe's wondrous doc, FOOD COOP

There a scene in Tancrède Ramonet's fine French TV documentary, No Gods, No Masters, in which a woman during the Spanish Civil War explains to us how the factory where she worked, now taken over by the workers themselves, was able to prosper without obeisance to hierarchy, religion or government control but by simply working together toward a common goal.

It's an inspiring moment, and watching the 2016 documentary FOOD COOP -- written and co-directed (with Maellanne Bonnicel) by Tom Boothe -- finally making its way to a U.S. release via DVD, you may realize that something very like this has been existing quite successfully in Brooklyn, New York, since 1973.

Mr. Boothe, shown at right, seems to have had a double purpose in making his terrific little film: He wanted to document the history, success and workings of this Brooklyn food coop, as well as helping to use this model for a similar food coop in his adopted city of Paris, France.

That French coop, La Louve, opened its doors in November of 2017 and this month celebrates the beginning of its third successful year of offering first-class food at affordable price -- which is pretty much exactly what the earlier Brooklyn coop has been doing for nigh unto 47 years.

This busy, bustling place (above) may be located in what is now uber-wealthy and gentrified Park Slope, but back in 1973 when it began, things in Brooklyn were a lot different. Now, according to one of the folk interviewed in this eye-opening documentary, "The Food Coop is one of the only racially and economically diverse places left in Park Slope." The filmmakers give us some of the history of the coop, as well a whole lot about not only how it works but why it works as well as it does.

This is fascinating stuff, and it's not hard to understand why Boothe wanted to use Park Slope as somewhat of a model for Paris. The coop is owned by its members, you must be a member to shop there, and members must work at the coop 2-3/4 hours per month to maintain their membership. According to the founders, it is members' time -- and not their money -- that assures their loyalty and devotion.

We hear from a huge and varied number of coop members as they work, and every one of them seems both intelligent and well-spoken. One woman (above), having done a thorough comparison between the coop and Whole Foods, found the coop's prices (for much better food, by the way) around 40 per cent below that of Whole Foods for a savings of around $3,000 per year.

We learn how and why the coop is able to secure first-class food in all areas (except maybe chocolate: that section is fascinating in itself), with cheeses among the most interesting discussions. (One thing to which the movie might have devoted more time: the coop's "joining" fee, as well as its "investment" fee.)

We even get a section on discipline in the coop: What happens when there is theft of either time or food. What the filmmakers have decided to show us could hardly have been chosen any better or edited any more wisely or concisely.

In just 97 minutes we're treated to the best lesson possible in socialism vs capitalism. Nothing I've seen in the five years since having to leave New York for Florida (for economic reasons) has made me miss the city any more than this wonderful and important film. Long may this food coop survive and prosper!

From Bullfrog Films and distributed via Icarus Home Video, Food Coop hits the street this coming Tuesday, November 4 -- for purchase and (I hope) rental. On the DVD extras is a nice interview with Joe Holtz, co-founder of the coop, and a terrific one with filmmaker Boothe.

Walking/discovering New York City in Jeremy Workman's THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET

The very interesting documentary filmmaker, Jeremy Workman, who back in 2014 brought us that year's finest doc (of those TrustMovies managed to see, at least) -- Magical Universe -- has a new one that just opened in New York City and Los Angeles. It's titled THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET and, so far as subject matter is concerned, proves highly reminiscent of Workman's contribution to another documentary, True New York, he produced two years ago. That would be the episode entitled One Track Mind, all about a fellow who has devoted his entire free time over the past 30 years to cataloging and archiving information on every last station in the New York City subway system.

Mr. Workman's new film tracks another, younger fellow, Matt Green (shown above, left, with the filmmaker), who has spent all of the past seven years walking the maybe 8,000 miles of roads and paths that make up New York City's five boroughs. Green gave up employment as a civil engineer (what most of us would call a very good job, particularly in these terrible times) to pursue his unusual dream. Why? Even he doesn't quite know. "People tell me I could be doing something more useful with my life," he explains "They ask me what is the point of it all. I'm kind of learning that as I go along."

And so do we. One of Workman's great gifts is to take us inside the folk he films, well enough and far enough so that we really do understand how they think and feel. We begin to experience life through their eyes. And Mr. Green's new lifestyle is a fascinating one: He tells us he is able to live on $15 per day. Homeless now, he depends on the kindness of former friends but mostly on that of the strangers he meets who often invite him in for a meal, a shower, even a place to sleep. He also cat-sits (and sometime dog-sits) as a means of providing himself shelter. The guy is a charmer, all right, pleasant looking, intelligent and affable. And his "trek" really does seem to interest many of the New Yorkers he meets.

Along the way, Workman lets us meet and hear from other New York "walkers": a sociology professor, a real estate agent and a writer, the latter of whom also happens to be black and explains to Green and to us some of the differences in dress, attitude and actions that he must employ, due to, yes, the race card. The filmmaker also allows us to meet two of Green's former girlfriends, one of whom he very nearly married. His obsessions (I would call them that) and lack of interest in more "normal" patterns of behavior and relaxation (he has zero interest in ever going out to a movie) seem to have rendered any long-term love relationship impossible.
For now at least.

We visit Green's home town of Ashland,Virginia (blink and you'll miss what's playing at the local movie house: a screening of Workman's Magical Universe) and meet his parents who, as you might imagine, kind of wish that their son had some real employment again (he has never asked them for money, they tell us). We see snippets of his earlier across-the-USA walk, during which he stopped at the home of his brother in Chicago, and we learn of past trauma that happened to both siblings that might help account for Matt's more-or-less uber-carpe diem philosophy.

Lasting only 95 minutes, the documentary is still surprisingly rich in the ways it brings us into Matt's world and viewpoint: the objects he sees, the people he meets, the history he discovers and especially all he notices and begins putting together and writing about via his blog -- the many "churchagogues" (ex-synagogues that have become other-denominational), all the hair-cutting establishments that have replaced the letter's "c" and "s" with those of "k" and "z" (note especially his honorable mention that caps all those kutzes), the "puddle that never goes away" (in Staten Island, I think), the ingenious vegetable gardens of Queens, real redwood trees in New York City, 9/11 memorials, cemeteries, and the oldest tree in all of NYC (along with a notebook left in its hollow by a class of kids who visited it once upon a time), and a young woman who, thanks to Matt, here tastes her first fig! This is New York City like you have never experienced it.

There is also some lovely and stirring music, thanks mostly to Carly Comando and Tom Rosenthal (among other contributors). Mostly though, this is Green's and Workman's baby (the latter produced, directed, filmed and edited it). And it is very much worth seeing. From Greenwich Entertainment, The World Before Your Feet opened in New York City at the Quad Cinema this past Wednesday, and will hit Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt today, Friday, November 23. It will also play Washington DC at the Avalon Cinema on Thursday December 13. Elsewhere? Sure hope so. I'll add playdates, cities and theaters here, as I learn of them.

DVDebut for Antonino D'Ambrosio's hero cop documentary, FRANK SERPICO

The idea that anyone -- back in 1973 when the film Serpico first appeared, or now, some 45 years later, with the DVD release of the new documentary, FRANK SERPICO, about that New York City cop-turned-whistleblower --- could question whether Frank Serpico was a hero or a "rat" (as so many of his fellow cops, a lot of whom were corrupt, on-the-take sleaze-bags, would call him then and still do today), offers a clear perspective as to why the United States of America continues to struggle so mightily for anything approaching justice and parity for its citizens.

While the earlier film, directed with his usual grit and realism by the late Sidney Lumet, was terrifically entertaining and timely (and remains so today), the new documentary written, produced and directed by Antonino D'Ambrosio (shown at left), proves a surprising and often fascinating addition to the Serpico story.

Mr. D'Ambosio's name seemed somewhat familiar to TrustMovies, so I checked my past posts to find I'd reviewed an earlier film of his, another documentary concerned with American justice entitled Let Fury Have the Hour (click the link for the review).

I'm happy to report that the filmmaker's new documentary is a considerably more cogent and focused piece of work.

Beginning with a scene in which Mr. Serpico (shown above, back in the 70s, and below more currently) explains how, as a police officer, he had to arrest prostitutes and how much he detested that kind of work, the documentary then moves to American history and our country's anti-Italian prejudice, Serpico's own family history, including his grandfather and father, from both of whom he seems to have inherited much of his moral compass.

This fellow proves quite a low-key but very compelling host and raconteur, and D'Ambrosio's filmic style, perhaps deliberately in keeping with that of his subject, is measured and quiet, never glossy nor hyped. Together, filmmaker and subject make for an excellent combination that never needs to plead for our trust but instead gets it quite naturally.

We hear from a number of Serpico's partners and friends (one of these is shown above) from the old days, including the partner he had on the day he was shot in the head -- an event that remains as suspicious now as it seemed at the time, since this man had made it his mission to try to bring to light, top to bottom, the corruption that was endemic throughout the New York City Police Department.

This shooting takes place midway through the film and its aftermath, which is, in a sense, still going on, takes up the remainder of the movie. We learn how Serpico, once he got out of the hospital, managed to get the police report regarding his shooting, which showed that, instead of the police themselves reporting one of their own being felled, the call to the police actually came from a civilian. That's how much the cops cared about saving the life of this man.

Then we see a little of the famous Knapp Commission, in which NYC police corruption was investigated, and to which Serpico provided much of the background and evidence. We hear (and see now) from his then-lawyer, Ramsey Clark (above, left).

Over a drink, we're privy to a meeting between him and his ex-partner in which that partner accuses Serpico of only going after cops as the bad guys but not their bosses.  "How would you do that?" Frank asks him. "I don't know. I didn't even try," comes the abashed response. We see and hear a lot about the negative response to Serpico's whistleblowing, and how the police want to paint it all as "us against them." But, as Ramsey Clark points out, that is incorrect because in reality, "It's only us." Or it should be. Funny how power and corruption always divide things.

There's some time, too, devoted to afterward, as our cop moves first to a farm in Northern Holland, and then finally to a home in upstate New York. D'Ambrosio ends his documentary with a huge rallying cry for justice and honesty now. The event that closes the film, together with the last line of dialog spoken, makes for a memorable humdinger of a finale.

From Sundance Selects and IFC Films, Frank Serpico hits the street on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13 -- for purchase and/or rental.

TRUE NEW YORK: a short-film anthology about the Big Apple by Jeremy Workman and others

The forever step-child of the movie world, the "short film," is so generally neglected (and, yes, he admits it, by TrustMovies, too) that the collection of shorts that makes its home video debut this coming week is at least some cause for celebration. Titled TRUE NEW YORK and featuring five documentary tales of people and life in the Big Apple, the total movie is definitely worth a watch -- if a bit uneven in terms of interest and success. The five shorts have all won awards at various fests, however, so chances are you'll find something worthwhile.

One of the five directors, Jeremy Workman (shown at right), also produced this anthology. Back in 2014, Mr. Workman made the year's best documentary, so far as I am concerned: a little amazement called Magical Universe. (The doc is now available to stream on Netflix, so if you have not seen it, consider it a "must.") Workman's contribution to this anthology -- One Track Mind, the third film of the five -- has, at its center another obsessive character similar to the one found in Magical Universe: a fellow named Philip Ashforth Coppola (below) who has dedicated most of his life to his self-financed study of the New York Subway system, with special attention to much of the architecture, art and history found in every single one of the system's many stations.

How he has managed this and what has resulted takes up the 22 minutes of the film -- the shortest but also the best of the group. Coppola is a man who clearly loves the subway, but he also possesses a nice ironic sense of humor, even about himself and his work (watch him pretend to fall asleep, as he views himself being interviewed on TV!).

Workman is, as you'll be, too, charmed by, interested in, and impressed by the man and his task. And the filmmaker brings it all to fine life with the help of his camera, Coppola, and a few talking head interviews that bolster the case.

C-ROCK, the short that opens this film, takes us to a certain spot in the Bronx (the title rock) overlooking the Harlem River, off of which (anywhere from 30 to 110 feet up) jump boys and young men as a kind of rite-of-passage. This has been going on for generations (we meet at least three of these in the film), as the youngster tell us, between their many jumps, what it all means to them, while the oldsters relive their youth.

At 29 minutes, the film seems over-extended (all that jumping proves finally a bit tiresome), but I must admit that the place is impressive, and the idea of jumping -- while maybe a tad dangerous (the movie's end credits go out of their way to mention that no encouragement was provided the jumpers by the filmmaker, Jordan Roth) -- certainly makes a spectacular visual.

The second film of the five -- Taxi Garage (originally titled Drivers Wanted) by Joshua Z. Weinstein -- is the kind of movie that might give Donald Trump heart failure (gosh, could someone show it to him soon, please?), it's such a paean to what so many of us love about the wonderful diversity of New York City and its boroughs. From the humorous old Jewish guy -- kindly but street-smart to the max -- who runs the place to his hugely diverse cab drivers (mostly recent immigrants), everyone we meet here seems like the salt-of-the-earth and then some.

In heat and snowstorm we watch them at work and learn a little of their lives and their desires. Made four years ago, before the onset and co-opting of Uber, the movie will make you wonder if the NYC Taxi company remains in business. (I just now tried the phone number we so often see throughout this little movie -- 718-786-5811 -- and sure enough, the company seems to be up and running.

New York's Muslim community is given a look in the fourth short doc, A Son's Sacrifice by Yoni Brook, that details how and why a young man named Imran (above) decides to take over his aging father's halal slaughterhouse in Queens. We meet that father, and get a short glimpse of the mother, but mostly concentrate on the son.

The movie allows us to see some interesting prejudice from Muslims themselves (when they suspect someone is not a Muslim) and also view various slaughterhouse practices. By the time we finally arrive at exactly what the sacrifice in question will be, we've learned enough about these people and their work that we can better understand and appreciate just how great this sacrifice both is and -- after all that Imran has now learned and experienced -- maybe is not.

The final film of the five -- Black Cherokee by Sam Cullman and Benjamin Rosen -- is in some ways the most bizarre, as it shows us a father (Otis Houston, Sr., who is failing via Alzheimer's) and his caretaker son (Otis Houston, Jr., an artist and performance artist), shown above and below, who sells his wares on the streets.

In its short 23 minutes, the movie tackles everything from art and freedom to caretaking and providing for family. As odd and oddly appealing is the younger Houston, there is so much more we might like to learn about this man and his beliefs that I wish the movie has spent a little less time simply watching him and more time asking him some questions. But that perhaps was not the moviemakers' intentions.

More to the point, however, is another question: In a movie entitled True New York, how "true" is it if a full 50 per cent of the population has been left out? I am talking about New York women, whom we barely see in any of these films. (Workman does interview a couple of them for his film; we catch a glimpse of one lone female taxi driver; and Imran's mom makes an appearance cooking in the kitchen, whis his dad manages to insult a woman at the family's slaughterhouse.) Granted, each film here was made in its own time and for its own purpose, but I would think that, in choosing the films to be included here, at least one of these ought to have concentrated on a female. Or is it possible that no female filmmakers or female subjects of short films actually exist? So much for diversity. (The fellow shown above, now deceased, is one of the most interesting of all Taxi Garage's drivers.)

This five-part documentary anthology, from First Run Features and running 131 minutes, hits the street on DVD this coming Tuesday, November 15, for purchase and/or rental.

Dan Eberle's back -- with another tight-lipped, slow-burning crime tale, SOLE PROPRIETOR

This will be the third film by writer/ director/star Dan Eberle (shown at left) that TrustMovies has covered over the past decade, beginning with The Local (made in 2008), moving on the the much more interesting Prayer to a Vengeful God (2010), and now Eberle's latest foray into tight-lipped, slow-burning machismo titled SOLE PROPRIETOR. (The filmmaker's third foray, Cut to Black, from 2013, I've not yet seen.)

Eberle (below), who writes, directs and stars in all his films, puts out the image of a beefy, sexy man of few words who plays, in each of these movies, practically the same character. Think of him as a down-market, low-budget Clint Eastwood (I prefer watching Eberle to even the younger Eastwood).

The problem that I increasingly have with Eberle's films, however (except for "Prayer" and its unusual no-dialog format), is that, while the movies may break new ground so far as their filmmaker is concerned, plot-wise they keep offering up the same kind of scenarios we've seen time and again -- from him and so many other filmmakers. There are so few surprises here that, for all the attractive performers, decent acting, good camerawork and other technical aspects on view, a feeling of been-there-done-that quickly sets in.

In Eberle's latest, we have more urban debauchery (his character, wherever the guy may be from, always comes off like a Brooklyn boy): problems involving drugs, prostitution and dirty cops. This time the filmmaker plays a guy on the lam who wants no name attached to him other than "Crowley from the Internet."  While Mr. C awaits a new identity, papers, and other help from the unnamed "consortium" or "corporation" by whom he is employed, he is told that he must do "one more job" for the powers-that-be, prior to getting the help he needs. Ah, yes: the old just-one-more-job ultimatum!

We never learn specific details of that job, but all of a sudden Crowley is involved with a prostitute who's into domination (Alexandra Hellquist, above and below). Fortunately our guy is into masochism, a new wrinkle for Eberle, but one that allows us to see him nearly unclothed -- nice package! -- and makes for a few decent sex scenes.

It also makes for the slow-fuse violence that eventually accrues, as we meet yet another pretty young whore with a sad, fraught history (Alexandra Chelaru, below),

some nasty Russians and Hondurans (including Chris Graham playing one of the former but looking more like one of the latter),

a low-key mob boss and other unsavory characters such as those particularly dirty cops (Nick Bixby, below, plays the dirtiest).

Love, or something akin, begins to bloom, and there are betrayals of all sorts, leading to a nicely effective finale, complete with a shoot-out, in which the various parties collide.

Despite the rather "used" scenario, Eberle has concocted one of his richer arrays of grotesques and urban decay, and his tendency toward less-is-more, in terms of dialog and general explanation, works pretty well in keeping his tale on course.

From Insurgent Pictures, the movie, after completing a week-long run at Hollywood's Arena Cinema, is in release now on select digital platforms. The film will be also featured in the inaugural Venice Film Week, and at the Action on Film festival this September, in advance of a national DVD/Bluray release this December.