New York City isn’t particularly renowned for its beauty. Wait, wait—don’t punch me. I love New York. I moved here because I grew up on Annie Hall, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Moonstruck, and All About Eve. I wanted to be in the city that never slept, feel the rush of creative energy that has inspired artists for centuries, but I didn’t consider the city a “beauty” comparable to Paris or Rome, cities with breathtaking architecture and art pouring from every structure.
The beauty of NYC is of a less-obvious kind; it grows on you. You learn to find serenity among the steel columns that support the subway, find dissonant harmony in the eclectic types of architecture that characterize major landmarks, and appreciate the softness of Central Park, a miniature forest surrounded by steel and cement.
Manfred Kirchheimer highlights precisely this kind of beauty in his poetic documentary Free Time.
The beauty of NYC is of a less-obvious kind; it grows on you. You learn to find serenity among the steel columns that support the subway, find dissonant harmony in the eclectic types of architecture that characterize major landmarks, and appreciate the softness of Central Park, a miniature forest surrounded by steel and cement.
Manfred Kirchheimer highlights precisely this kind of beauty in his poetic documentary Free Time.
- 11/12/2020
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Between 1957 and 1960, Manfred Kirchheimer and his partner Walter Hess shot thousands of feet of 16mm film for a planned documentary about New York City. For years the footage sat in storage, until Kirchheimer began editing it in 1968. Since then he fashioned two features from the material—Claw in 1968 and Dream of a City in 2018. Free Time is the third film assembled from the material.
Shot mostly on the streets and sidewalks of Manhattan’s Washington Heights, Free Time unfolds in areas apart from business and work. Children play games, chase each other through empty lots, hang around hydrants and alleys. Their parents gather on stoops or in shaded doorways to talk and smoke. Some drag out lawn chairs to soak up the sun. Shoppers return home, apartment residents clean windows or carry out old furniture, a janitor bundles up cardboard to recycle. It’s a portrait of a city that...
Shot mostly on the streets and sidewalks of Manhattan’s Washington Heights, Free Time unfolds in areas apart from business and work. Children play games, chase each other through empty lots, hang around hydrants and alleys. Their parents gather on stoops or in shaded doorways to talk and smoke. Some drag out lawn chairs to soak up the sun. Shoppers return home, apartment residents clean windows or carry out old furniture, a janitor bundles up cardboard to recycle. It’s a portrait of a city that...
- 11/10/2020
- by Daniel Eagan
- The Film Stage
In the late ’50s and early ’60s, documentarian Manfred Kirchheimer and his frequent collaborator Walter Hess prowled New York City for a planned film about the proliferation of high-rise buildings in a changing city. While that project, unlike Kirchheimer’s well-known NYC-centric features like “Claw” (also made alongside Hess) and the seminal “Stations of the Elevated,” never got off the ground, it did ultimately spawn what would become “Free Time.”
Based on the black-and-white footage the pair gathered decades ago, the film has only recently been assembled into a 61-minute project — it celebrated its world premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival, over 60 years before it was first begun — and is now gearing up for a limited release. It will start, appropriately enough, at New York City’s own Film Forum.
More from IndieWire'Soul' Trailer: Jamie Foxx Jazzes Up Pixar's Feel-Good Summer ComedyQuibi: Watch All the Trailers...
Based on the black-and-white footage the pair gathered decades ago, the film has only recently been assembled into a 61-minute project — it celebrated its world premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival, over 60 years before it was first begun — and is now gearing up for a limited release. It will start, appropriately enough, at New York City’s own Film Forum.
More from IndieWire'Soul' Trailer: Jamie Foxx Jazzes Up Pixar's Feel-Good Summer ComedyQuibi: Watch All the Trailers...
- 3/13/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
‘Free Time’ Paints A Beautiful Portrait Of Youth, Decay, And Solitude In New York City [Nyff Review]
If Manfred Kirchheimer’s latest documentary “Free Time” could summarize itself into a single statement, it would be that there is power in silence. Not a single word of dialogue is spoken in “Free Time,” and yet, this 60-minute exploration of New York City speaks louder than most films, documentary or otherwise, released in 2019 so far.
For those unfamiliar with the director and his work, Kirchheimer’s 60-year career fundamentally consists of nonfictional, documentarian love letters to the sprawling urban landscape of New York City; his prior works include “We Were So Beloved,” which captures the experiences of European immigrants who crossed the Atlantic in response to Nazi occupation, and the political-art-inspired “Art Is…The Permanent Revolution.”
Created from collections of black-and-white 16mm footage shot my Kirchheimer and Walter Hess from 1958 to 1960, “Free Time” is a plotless examination of urbanites living day-to-day in a bygone era of New York City.
For those unfamiliar with the director and his work, Kirchheimer’s 60-year career fundamentally consists of nonfictional, documentarian love letters to the sprawling urban landscape of New York City; his prior works include “We Were So Beloved,” which captures the experiences of European immigrants who crossed the Atlantic in response to Nazi occupation, and the political-art-inspired “Art Is…The Permanent Revolution.”
Created from collections of black-and-white 16mm footage shot my Kirchheimer and Walter Hess from 1958 to 1960, “Free Time” is a plotless examination of urbanites living day-to-day in a bygone era of New York City.
- 10/1/2019
- by Jonathan Christian
- The Playlist
The documentary lineup at the New York Film Festival showcases largely hidden worlds of the city and nearby environs.
When Tania Cypriano began filming Dr. Jess Ting at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital in 2017, he was one of only 40 surgeons in the United States who performed gender-confirming surgery.
“A lot of films about the trans experience have been made, but I wanted to make something new, that would speak to a larger audience,” says Cypriano, whose documentary is entitled “Born to Be.” “Learning what it is to be transgender, what is at stake and what the future of [these surgeries] looks like through Dr. Ting’s eyes was key.”
Ting and a handful of his patients allowed the director to film their surgeries. “We pitched the president of Mount Sinai, David Reich,” Cypriano says. “He looked at the documentary as an opportunity to show the public what Dr. Ting and his team were doing.
When Tania Cypriano began filming Dr. Jess Ting at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital in 2017, he was one of only 40 surgeons in the United States who performed gender-confirming surgery.
“A lot of films about the trans experience have been made, but I wanted to make something new, that would speak to a larger audience,” says Cypriano, whose documentary is entitled “Born to Be.” “Learning what it is to be transgender, what is at stake and what the future of [these surgeries] looks like through Dr. Ting’s eyes was key.”
Ting and a handful of his patients allowed the director to film their surgeries. “We pitched the president of Mount Sinai, David Reich,” Cypriano says. “He looked at the documentary as an opportunity to show the public what Dr. Ting and his team were doing.
- 9/25/2019
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Films on Merce Cunningham, Roy Cohn and Oliver Sacks are among the notable titles set for the Spotlight on Documentary lineup at the 57th New York Film Festival.
Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D” centers on dancer and choreographer Cunningham, who was at the forefront of American modern dance for half a century. The Cohn documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim” is directed by Ivy Meeropol, whose grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were prosecuted by Cohn. Ric Burns’s “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life,” examines the British neurologist and author.
The Spotlight on Documentary also include Michael Apted’s “63 Up,” the ninth iteration of his “Up” series that followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964; Nick Broomfield’s “My Father and Me,” a portrait of his relationship with his father Maurice Broomfield; and Nicholas Ma’s short documentary “Suite No. 1, Prelude,” which captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father Yo-Yo Ma.
Two...
Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D” centers on dancer and choreographer Cunningham, who was at the forefront of American modern dance for half a century. The Cohn documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim” is directed by Ivy Meeropol, whose grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were prosecuted by Cohn. Ric Burns’s “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life,” examines the British neurologist and author.
The Spotlight on Documentary also include Michael Apted’s “63 Up,” the ninth iteration of his “Up” series that followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964; Nick Broomfield’s “My Father and Me,” a portrait of his relationship with his father Maurice Broomfield; and Nicholas Ma’s short documentary “Suite No. 1, Prelude,” which captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father Yo-Yo Ma.
Two...
- 8/21/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Section will include films from Nick Broomfield, Nanni Moretti and Michael Apted.
The New York Film Festival has unveiled a Spotlight on Documentary section that includes North American premieres for Nick Broomfield’s My Father and Me and Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia and a Us premiere for Michael Apted’s 63 Up.
The festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and running from September 27 to October 13, will also include world premieres for Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars and Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread.
The full Spotlight on Documentary line-up:
45 Seconds of Laughter
Tim Robbins, USA. Us premiere
A...
The New York Film Festival has unveiled a Spotlight on Documentary section that includes North American premieres for Nick Broomfield’s My Father and Me and Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia and a Us premiere for Michael Apted’s 63 Up.
The festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and running from September 27 to October 13, will also include world premieres for Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars and Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread.
The full Spotlight on Documentary line-up:
45 Seconds of Laughter
Tim Robbins, USA. Us premiere
A...
- 8/21/2019
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.