It’s a case of cold-blooded, premeditated nostalgia: Abbott & Costello’s fantasy musical is innocent comedy rooted in early ’50s kiddie entertainment — a vein perfectly suited to the duo’s talents. Lou Costello makes a fine underdog fantasy hero, too. The feature restoration is quite an achievement for the 3-D Archive, as cine-archeology was required to understand the arcane color process ‘SuperCineColor.’ But the show’s slapstick action, clever songs and dippy dancing are finally back and looking great. The labor of love extends to the extras: excised scenes, background material, some words from the only surviving actor, a learned piece on the color process and a surprise guest appearance by the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / 70th Anniversary Limited Edition / Street Date July 26, 2022 / Available from ClassicFlix / 49.95
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Buddy Baer, Dorothy Ford, Barbara Brown, David Stollery,...
Jack and the Beanstalk
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1952 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 78 min. / 70th Anniversary Limited Edition / Street Date July 26, 2022 / Available from ClassicFlix / 49.95
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Buddy Baer, Dorothy Ford, Barbara Brown, David Stollery,...
- 7/23/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Samuel L. Jackson is back on top of the box office with “Captain Marvel,” his second number one debut of the year following M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” in January. While the actor is already having one of his biggest year’s yet, one film he is not attached to is Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Jackson has appeared in six of Tarantino’s nine films, and recently told Esquire his character in the director’s “Django Unchained” is his favorite of all time.
“I love fucking Stephen,” Jackson said about the character, a loyal house slave to the film’s villainous plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). “I mean, the dude ran that fucking plantation. Candyland was his fucking plantation. Leo’s out fighting n–gers and doing whatever, running the strip club. Dude’s writing the bills. [Stephen is] making sure the crops get planted.
“I love fucking Stephen,” Jackson said about the character, a loyal house slave to the film’s villainous plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). “I mean, the dude ran that fucking plantation. Candyland was his fucking plantation. Leo’s out fighting n–gers and doing whatever, running the strip club. Dude’s writing the bills. [Stephen is] making sure the crops get planted.
- 3/13/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
A full UK trailer for the upcoming modern-day remake of 70’s blaxploitation classic, Superfly has been released.
Directed by Director X and produced by Joel Silver and hip-hop star Future and Steven R. Shore, the film stars Trevor Jackson as Youngblood Priest, Jason Mitchell as Eddie, Lex Scott Davis as Georgia, Andrea Londo as Cynthia, Jacob Ming-Trent as Fat Freddy, and Omar Chapparo as Adalberto.
The original 1972 film told the story of Priest (Ron O’Neal), a suave top-rung New York City drug dealer who decides that he wants to get out of his dangerous trade. Working with his reluctant friend, Eddie (Carl Lee), Priest devises a scheme that will allow him to make a big deal and then retire. When a desperate street dealer informs the police of Priest’s activities, Priest is forced into an uncomfortable arrangement with corrupt narcotics officers. Setting his plan in motion, he aims...
Directed by Director X and produced by Joel Silver and hip-hop star Future and Steven R. Shore, the film stars Trevor Jackson as Youngblood Priest, Jason Mitchell as Eddie, Lex Scott Davis as Georgia, Andrea Londo as Cynthia, Jacob Ming-Trent as Fat Freddy, and Omar Chapparo as Adalberto.
The original 1972 film told the story of Priest (Ron O’Neal), a suave top-rung New York City drug dealer who decides that he wants to get out of his dangerous trade. Working with his reluctant friend, Eddie (Carl Lee), Priest devises a scheme that will allow him to make a big deal and then retire. When a desperate street dealer informs the police of Priest’s activities, Priest is forced into an uncomfortable arrangement with corrupt narcotics officers. Setting his plan in motion, he aims...
- 5/8/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Holliday Heart: Winter Reimagines the Peripheral Flotsam and Jetsam of Famed Interview
The nagging obscurity of Shirley Clarke’s famed 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason remains a notable absence on many lists noting the best examples of the format, a title only recently made available within the Us in late 2014. An unforgettable portrait of a gay black hustler named Jason Holliday interviewed by the famed documentarian (who had previously won on Oscar for Robert Frost: a Lover’s Quarrel with the World in 1963) over one twelve hour period in 1966, it’s a case study representative of the limitations humans have in being able to completely understand another’s experiences based on social demarcations of race, gender, class, etc. Director Stephen Winter reimagines what went on between takes during the famed interview that transpired in the Chelsea hotel, dramatizing some of the salacious hypotheses surrounding the source film, such as Clarke...
The nagging obscurity of Shirley Clarke’s famed 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason remains a notable absence on many lists noting the best examples of the format, a title only recently made available within the Us in late 2014. An unforgettable portrait of a gay black hustler named Jason Holliday interviewed by the famed documentarian (who had previously won on Oscar for Robert Frost: a Lover’s Quarrel with the World in 1963) over one twelve hour period in 1966, it’s a case study representative of the limitations humans have in being able to completely understand another’s experiences based on social demarcations of race, gender, class, etc. Director Stephen Winter reimagines what went on between takes during the famed interview that transpired in the Chelsea hotel, dramatizing some of the salacious hypotheses surrounding the source film, such as Clarke...
- 10/23/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Milestone Film & Video is one of the finest and most well-established U.S. distributor of docs and arthouse features. They have such great films like the classic "I am Cuba" and have been working on compiling all they can on the filmmaker Shirley Clarke ("The Connection") whose film in the 60s, "The Cool World," made me one of her avid fans forever. Their film, "Portrait of Jason," also by Clarke, premiered at Idfa 2014, the premium doc festival in the world and I was lucky enough to see it at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. Its clarity and humanity moved me so much that I feel obliged to publish this here. When Amy Heller and Dennis Doros of Milestone speak the way they do in the following blog, I listen. Since the film "Jason and Shirley" just premiered at BAMcinemaFest and Frameline Film Festival, both wonderful events, I think it is important for everyone to know what they have to say. "In 25 years, we have never weighed in on anyone else's film (except to recommend those we love), but Dennis and I felt the need to go on the record about Stephen Winter's new feature Jason and Shirley."
'Jason and Shirley': The Cruelty and Irresponsibility of 'Satire'
by Amy Heller
In the twenty-five years that we have been running Milestone Films, we have never before reviewed or commented publicly on anyone else’s film—except to recommend it. But we have now encountered a new feature film that purports to “satirize” a film and a filmmaker we represent and have spent years researching. While we are absolute believers in freedom of speech and artistic expression and do not dispute that the producers, writers and stars of Jason and Shirley have every right to make their “re-vision” of the making of Shirley Clarke’s great documentary "Portrait of Jason," we feel we must go on the record about the film’s inaccurate and simplistic portrayals of a brilliant filmmaker and her charismatic subject.
Director Stephen Winter (and co-writers Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters) have created a fictitious drama that imagines what might have happened on December 3, 1966 when Shirley Clarke spent twelve hours with Jason Holliday, Carl Lee, Jeri Sopanen, Jim Hubbard and Bob Fiore shooting "Portrait of Jason." The filmmakers claim the right to re-imagine the events that took place in that Hotel Chelsea apartment, but they fail to understand something that Shirley Clarke knew and conveyed in all her films: the need for integrity.
Clarke’s first feature, "The Connection," a fiction film based partly on real people, has enormous respect for all its characters, an understanding of humanity, and a love for cinema. Shirley knew that a genuine artist values inner truth, whether the film is a documentary or a dramatic feature. And of course, Shirley did not use real names. She knew that when you use real people’s names and identities, you need to seek and explore the truth in all its complexities. Ornette: Made in America, a film that she and Ornette Coleman were very proud to create, is an example of Clarke’s quest for meaning and authenticity.
We at Milestone are now in the seventh year of “Project Shirley,” our ongoing commitment to learn everything about Clarke as a director, an artist and a person. With the cooperation of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater and the Clarke estate, we have digitized nearly one hundred of her features, short films, outtakes, unfinished projects, home movies, and experimental films and videos. We have gone through thousands of pages of letters, contracts, and Shirley’s diaries. We have interviewed and talked to dozens of people who knew and worked with her.
We have heard wonderful stories, tragic stories, and stories of such real pain that they are almost unbearable. Shirley Clarke was a sister, wife, mother, dancer, lover, filmmaker, editor, teacher, and yes, for a sad period, a junkie. It wasn’t intended, but along the way we fell in love with Shirley and came to feel that we owed it to her to create a portrait of a real woman and an artist. Shirley’s daughter Wendy Clarke and her extended family have supported our efforts every step of the way, encouraging us to reveal what is true, for better or worse. We have shared our discoveries with the world in theaters, on television, on DVD and Blu-Ray, in lectures — and in our exhaustive press kits (available on our website, free for everyone).
We have strived for the highest levels of accuracy, knowing that critics, academics, bloggers, and the general public deserve and depend on our research. We corroborated all the oral histories we conducted using primary sources, including original letters, interviews, and contracts. Finally, we asked people who knew Shirley to check and proof all our work. We have shared this research with every filmmaker, scholar and critic who has asked us for information.
So it was truly agonizing for us to watch Stephen Winter’s "Jason and Shirley," a film that is bad cinema and worse ethics—that cynically appropriates and parodies the identities of real people, stereotyping and humiliating them and doing disservice to their memory. The filmmakers may call it an homage, but their complete lack of research and their numerous factual errors and falsehoods have betrayed everyone who was involved in making "Portrait of Jason."
Winter and his team call their film an “imagination” of the night (although they stage the filming during the day) of December 3, when Shirley Clarke shot "Portrait of Jason." But interestingly, they only use the real names of those participants who have died: Clarke, Jason Holliday and Carl Lee (perhaps because you cannot libel the dead). They did not interview the people who were on the set that long night and who are still around—filmmakers Bob Fiore and Jim Hubbard.
They also chose not to work with Shirley’s daughter, artist and filmmaker Wendy Clarke, whom they never bothered to contact (and go out of their way to mock in the film). Jason and Shirley even features a title card in the closing credits thanking Wendy, implying that she has given her approval for the film. In truth, Wendy’s response, when she finally saw Jason and Shirley, was: “I don’t want people seeing this film to think there is any truth to it. This film tells nasty lies and is a parasitic attempt to gain prominence from true genius.”
Similarly, the filmmakers never asked us at Milestone for access to the reams of documents we have discovered from the making of "Portrait of Jason." Instead, they preferred to pretend to know what happened, to create their own “Shirley Clarke,” “Carl Lee,” and “Jason Holliday,” rather than try to create honest and respectful portraits of these very real people.
Lazy filmmakers make bad movies and "Jason and Shirley" is false, flaccid, and boring—unforgivable cinematic sins. Perhaps its most egregious and painful crime is taking the strong, brilliant woman that Shirley Clarke truly was and portraying her as a lumpy, platitude-spouting Jewish hausfrau—an inept cineaste who doesn’t know what she is doing and eventually needs her boyfriend to “save” the film for her. In service of their alleged investigation into race relations (a topic Shirley explored far better with her powerful and intelligent films "The Connection," "The Cool World," "Portrait of Jason" and "Ornette: Made in America"), they reduced her to a sexist cliché—the little woman—and a tedious cliché at that.
Shirley Clarke was wild, creative, brilliant, graceful, challenging, incredibly stylish, vibrant, and alive with the possibilities of life. At home at the center of many creative circles in New York City and around the world, she was adored by countless admirers—despite (or sometimes because of) her faults and failings. And Shirley is still loved by those who remember her—the people who worked on her films, her friends, her family, and the audiences who are rediscovering her great films. She was incredibly special. The misshapen caricature of Clarke in Jason and Shirley insults and trivializes a great artist and pioneer.
We also find “Jason” in Winter’s film to be a one-dimensional and disrespectful distortion of the very complicated man who was born Aaron Payne in 1924. Jason Holliday’s life was difficult in many ways—as a gay black man he experienced police harassment, poverty, family rejection, imprisonment, painful self-doubt, and innumerable varieties of personal and institutional racism. But he was also vibrantly an original, a self-invented diva, a survivor, and a raconteur of the first order who was the inspiration for his own cinematic Portrait. Shirley decided to make her film in order to explore this extraordinary Scheherazade’s 1001 stories—and the fragile line between his reminiscences and his inventions.
And truly, it is not easy to tell what was real and what was not in Jason’s life. In his “Autobiography” (reprinted in Milestone’s press kit), Holliday talked about appearing on Broadway in “Carmen Jones,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and “Green Pastures” and about performing his nightclub act in Greenwich Village. And while much of his narrative may seem improbable, the Trenton Historical Society found newspaper articles from the 1950s corroborating Jason’s claim that he was a performer at New York’s Salle de Champagne. So did he study acting with Charles Laughton and dance with Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham? We may never know. But the man who spun those marvelous yarns was not the alternately maniacal and weepy loser in "Jason and Shirley."
Here are just a few of the other things that are obviously, carelessly and offensively wrong in "Jason and Shirley":
In the very beginning, there is a title card stating that the filmmakers were denied access to the outtakes of "Portrait of Jason." These recordings were available for all to hear at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, where all of Shirley’s archives can be found—or by contacting Milestone. In fact, all the outtakes (30 minutes of audio) were released on November 11, 2014 as a bonus features on Milestone’s DVD and Blu-Ray of the film. That was six months before "Jason and Shirley" was completed.
In "Jason and Shirley," “Jason” has never previously visited “Shirley’s” apartment and knows nothing about her. In reality, they had been friends for many years and Jason would often visit her apartment. The film states that the cinematographer on Portrait of Jason had worked on Clarke’s other two features. Actually, the film was Jeri Sopanen’s first job with her. Further, absolutely no crew member had an issue about working on "Portrait of Jason," as the new film portrays.
In the film “Shirley” says, “See that horrible painting on the wall? My daughter painted that… I have a daughter who is a terrible artist.” Fact: in several video interviews with Shirley (including one released as a bonus feature on Ornette: Made In America, which also came out last November) and in many of her letters and diaries, Clarke talked about how extremely proud she was of her daughter Wendy and her art. Mother and daughter worked happily together for years on many projects including the legendary Tee Pee Video Space Troupe. Wendy’s fine art, textiles, and video work have received critical praise for nearly 50 years. It was needlessly and maliciously hurtful for the filmmakers to include a line that is so obviously false and unkind.
In the film, “Shirley” says her maiden name was Bermberg. She was born Shirley Brimberg.
There is an Academy Award® statue for "Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel With the World" in “Shirley’s” apartment and the other characters repeatedly mock her for it. The film did win an Oscar®, but although she received directing credit, Shirley had been fired from the final edit and producer Robert Hughes picked up the award. (You can see this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOS70Tqsz7U)
“Shirley” asks “Jason” to go up on the roof of the Hotel Chelsea with her to talk. In reality, her apartment was famously on the roof.
In the film, “Shirley” is unable to finish Portrait of Jason and tells everybody to go home and “Carl Lee” comes in to take over the film and save it. This is ludicrous, wrong and misogynistic. Clarke was a consummate film professional and all her collaborators attest to her skill and drive.
The film ends with a title card stating that Shirley died in New York (which is simply incorrect) and that Carl Lee died of a heroin overdose. Tragically, Lee died of AIDS and this information is in the Milestone press kit.
Another title card indicates that when Jason Holliday died that there were no friends or family listed in his one obituary. In truth, the Trentonian on July 31, 1998 wrote that two sisters, six nieces and two nephews survived him. We found the relatives when doing our research.
The filmmakers have labeled "Jason and Shirley" a satirical work of fiction. We are just not sure who or what they claim to be satirizing. The film is not ironic, humorous, sardonic or tongue-in-cheek. We can only surmise that they are deliberately parodying the idea of cinematic integrity.
On behalf of Milestone, Wendy Clarke, and Shirley Clarke’s extended family and friends, we respectfully ask film fans not to base their appraisal of Clarke and her filmmaking on the unkind depictions in "Jason and Shirley."
Yours in cinema,
Amy Heller and Dennis Doros
Milestone Films...
'Jason and Shirley': The Cruelty and Irresponsibility of 'Satire'
by Amy Heller
In the twenty-five years that we have been running Milestone Films, we have never before reviewed or commented publicly on anyone else’s film—except to recommend it. But we have now encountered a new feature film that purports to “satirize” a film and a filmmaker we represent and have spent years researching. While we are absolute believers in freedom of speech and artistic expression and do not dispute that the producers, writers and stars of Jason and Shirley have every right to make their “re-vision” of the making of Shirley Clarke’s great documentary "Portrait of Jason," we feel we must go on the record about the film’s inaccurate and simplistic portrayals of a brilliant filmmaker and her charismatic subject.
Director Stephen Winter (and co-writers Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters) have created a fictitious drama that imagines what might have happened on December 3, 1966 when Shirley Clarke spent twelve hours with Jason Holliday, Carl Lee, Jeri Sopanen, Jim Hubbard and Bob Fiore shooting "Portrait of Jason." The filmmakers claim the right to re-imagine the events that took place in that Hotel Chelsea apartment, but they fail to understand something that Shirley Clarke knew and conveyed in all her films: the need for integrity.
Clarke’s first feature, "The Connection," a fiction film based partly on real people, has enormous respect for all its characters, an understanding of humanity, and a love for cinema. Shirley knew that a genuine artist values inner truth, whether the film is a documentary or a dramatic feature. And of course, Shirley did not use real names. She knew that when you use real people’s names and identities, you need to seek and explore the truth in all its complexities. Ornette: Made in America, a film that she and Ornette Coleman were very proud to create, is an example of Clarke’s quest for meaning and authenticity.
We at Milestone are now in the seventh year of “Project Shirley,” our ongoing commitment to learn everything about Clarke as a director, an artist and a person. With the cooperation of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater and the Clarke estate, we have digitized nearly one hundred of her features, short films, outtakes, unfinished projects, home movies, and experimental films and videos. We have gone through thousands of pages of letters, contracts, and Shirley’s diaries. We have interviewed and talked to dozens of people who knew and worked with her.
We have heard wonderful stories, tragic stories, and stories of such real pain that they are almost unbearable. Shirley Clarke was a sister, wife, mother, dancer, lover, filmmaker, editor, teacher, and yes, for a sad period, a junkie. It wasn’t intended, but along the way we fell in love with Shirley and came to feel that we owed it to her to create a portrait of a real woman and an artist. Shirley’s daughter Wendy Clarke and her extended family have supported our efforts every step of the way, encouraging us to reveal what is true, for better or worse. We have shared our discoveries with the world in theaters, on television, on DVD and Blu-Ray, in lectures — and in our exhaustive press kits (available on our website, free for everyone).
We have strived for the highest levels of accuracy, knowing that critics, academics, bloggers, and the general public deserve and depend on our research. We corroborated all the oral histories we conducted using primary sources, including original letters, interviews, and contracts. Finally, we asked people who knew Shirley to check and proof all our work. We have shared this research with every filmmaker, scholar and critic who has asked us for information.
So it was truly agonizing for us to watch Stephen Winter’s "Jason and Shirley," a film that is bad cinema and worse ethics—that cynically appropriates and parodies the identities of real people, stereotyping and humiliating them and doing disservice to their memory. The filmmakers may call it an homage, but their complete lack of research and their numerous factual errors and falsehoods have betrayed everyone who was involved in making "Portrait of Jason."
Winter and his team call their film an “imagination” of the night (although they stage the filming during the day) of December 3, when Shirley Clarke shot "Portrait of Jason." But interestingly, they only use the real names of those participants who have died: Clarke, Jason Holliday and Carl Lee (perhaps because you cannot libel the dead). They did not interview the people who were on the set that long night and who are still around—filmmakers Bob Fiore and Jim Hubbard.
They also chose not to work with Shirley’s daughter, artist and filmmaker Wendy Clarke, whom they never bothered to contact (and go out of their way to mock in the film). Jason and Shirley even features a title card in the closing credits thanking Wendy, implying that she has given her approval for the film. In truth, Wendy’s response, when she finally saw Jason and Shirley, was: “I don’t want people seeing this film to think there is any truth to it. This film tells nasty lies and is a parasitic attempt to gain prominence from true genius.”
Similarly, the filmmakers never asked us at Milestone for access to the reams of documents we have discovered from the making of "Portrait of Jason." Instead, they preferred to pretend to know what happened, to create their own “Shirley Clarke,” “Carl Lee,” and “Jason Holliday,” rather than try to create honest and respectful portraits of these very real people.
Lazy filmmakers make bad movies and "Jason and Shirley" is false, flaccid, and boring—unforgivable cinematic sins. Perhaps its most egregious and painful crime is taking the strong, brilliant woman that Shirley Clarke truly was and portraying her as a lumpy, platitude-spouting Jewish hausfrau—an inept cineaste who doesn’t know what she is doing and eventually needs her boyfriend to “save” the film for her. In service of their alleged investigation into race relations (a topic Shirley explored far better with her powerful and intelligent films "The Connection," "The Cool World," "Portrait of Jason" and "Ornette: Made in America"), they reduced her to a sexist cliché—the little woman—and a tedious cliché at that.
Shirley Clarke was wild, creative, brilliant, graceful, challenging, incredibly stylish, vibrant, and alive with the possibilities of life. At home at the center of many creative circles in New York City and around the world, she was adored by countless admirers—despite (or sometimes because of) her faults and failings. And Shirley is still loved by those who remember her—the people who worked on her films, her friends, her family, and the audiences who are rediscovering her great films. She was incredibly special. The misshapen caricature of Clarke in Jason and Shirley insults and trivializes a great artist and pioneer.
We also find “Jason” in Winter’s film to be a one-dimensional and disrespectful distortion of the very complicated man who was born Aaron Payne in 1924. Jason Holliday’s life was difficult in many ways—as a gay black man he experienced police harassment, poverty, family rejection, imprisonment, painful self-doubt, and innumerable varieties of personal and institutional racism. But he was also vibrantly an original, a self-invented diva, a survivor, and a raconteur of the first order who was the inspiration for his own cinematic Portrait. Shirley decided to make her film in order to explore this extraordinary Scheherazade’s 1001 stories—and the fragile line between his reminiscences and his inventions.
And truly, it is not easy to tell what was real and what was not in Jason’s life. In his “Autobiography” (reprinted in Milestone’s press kit), Holliday talked about appearing on Broadway in “Carmen Jones,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and “Green Pastures” and about performing his nightclub act in Greenwich Village. And while much of his narrative may seem improbable, the Trenton Historical Society found newspaper articles from the 1950s corroborating Jason’s claim that he was a performer at New York’s Salle de Champagne. So did he study acting with Charles Laughton and dance with Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham? We may never know. But the man who spun those marvelous yarns was not the alternately maniacal and weepy loser in "Jason and Shirley."
Here are just a few of the other things that are obviously, carelessly and offensively wrong in "Jason and Shirley":
In the very beginning, there is a title card stating that the filmmakers were denied access to the outtakes of "Portrait of Jason." These recordings were available for all to hear at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, where all of Shirley’s archives can be found—or by contacting Milestone. In fact, all the outtakes (30 minutes of audio) were released on November 11, 2014 as a bonus features on Milestone’s DVD and Blu-Ray of the film. That was six months before "Jason and Shirley" was completed.
In "Jason and Shirley," “Jason” has never previously visited “Shirley’s” apartment and knows nothing about her. In reality, they had been friends for many years and Jason would often visit her apartment. The film states that the cinematographer on Portrait of Jason had worked on Clarke’s other two features. Actually, the film was Jeri Sopanen’s first job with her. Further, absolutely no crew member had an issue about working on "Portrait of Jason," as the new film portrays.
In the film “Shirley” says, “See that horrible painting on the wall? My daughter painted that… I have a daughter who is a terrible artist.” Fact: in several video interviews with Shirley (including one released as a bonus feature on Ornette: Made In America, which also came out last November) and in many of her letters and diaries, Clarke talked about how extremely proud she was of her daughter Wendy and her art. Mother and daughter worked happily together for years on many projects including the legendary Tee Pee Video Space Troupe. Wendy’s fine art, textiles, and video work have received critical praise for nearly 50 years. It was needlessly and maliciously hurtful for the filmmakers to include a line that is so obviously false and unkind.
In the film, “Shirley” says her maiden name was Bermberg. She was born Shirley Brimberg.
There is an Academy Award® statue for "Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel With the World" in “Shirley’s” apartment and the other characters repeatedly mock her for it. The film did win an Oscar®, but although she received directing credit, Shirley had been fired from the final edit and producer Robert Hughes picked up the award. (You can see this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOS70Tqsz7U)
“Shirley” asks “Jason” to go up on the roof of the Hotel Chelsea with her to talk. In reality, her apartment was famously on the roof.
In the film, “Shirley” is unable to finish Portrait of Jason and tells everybody to go home and “Carl Lee” comes in to take over the film and save it. This is ludicrous, wrong and misogynistic. Clarke was a consummate film professional and all her collaborators attest to her skill and drive.
The film ends with a title card stating that Shirley died in New York (which is simply incorrect) and that Carl Lee died of a heroin overdose. Tragically, Lee died of AIDS and this information is in the Milestone press kit.
Another title card indicates that when Jason Holliday died that there were no friends or family listed in his one obituary. In truth, the Trentonian on July 31, 1998 wrote that two sisters, six nieces and two nephews survived him. We found the relatives when doing our research.
The filmmakers have labeled "Jason and Shirley" a satirical work of fiction. We are just not sure who or what they claim to be satirizing. The film is not ironic, humorous, sardonic or tongue-in-cheek. We can only surmise that they are deliberately parodying the idea of cinematic integrity.
On behalf of Milestone, Wendy Clarke, and Shirley Clarke’s extended family and friends, we respectfully ask film fans not to base their appraisal of Clarke and her filmmaking on the unkind depictions in "Jason and Shirley."
Yours in cinema,
Amy Heller and Dennis Doros
Milestone Films...
- 6/23/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Matthew McConaughey has now blossomed into one of Hollywood.s most desired actors, despite a few bumps in the road courtesy of the romantic-comedy genre. It was Joel Schumacher, though, who was one of the first directors to spot the prestigious talents of the Texas native, and he gambled on giving him his first leading role in 1996.s A Time To Kill. But it turns out, it all had to be done in a rather covert manner. During an in-depth talk with Joel Schumacher, the Batman & Robin and St. Elmo.s Fire filmmaker told Variety that he always wanted McConaughey to be a part of his adaptation of John Grisham.s novel, but he just wasn.t sure which role he was right for. Schumacher soon deciphered that he.d be perfect as Jake Brigance, the lawyer who defends Samuel L. Jackson.s Carl Lee Hailey after he murders the...
- 10/14/2014
- cinemablend.com
Sure, the 86th Academy Awards featured some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were there. Meryl Streep was there. Leonardo DiCaprio was there. But if I’m being honest, part of me saw this “get together” as less of a show and more of a reunion. More specifically, A Time to Kill reunion.
In the crowd sat several cast members of the 1996 film, which included Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson, and of course, first-time Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey. And the second I saw this photo of Jackson and McConaughey, I couldn’t help but...
In the crowd sat several cast members of the 1996 film, which included Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson, and of course, first-time Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey. And the second I saw this photo of Jackson and McConaughey, I couldn’t help but...
- 3/3/2014
- by Samantha Highfill
- EW.com - PopWatch
A ceiling fan slowly rotates, stirring soupy Delta miasma. Our hero enters, eating grits. Fred Dalton Thompson appears out of the swampy murk, singing “Swanee” and covered in Spanish moss. Ok, that last bit ain’t necessarily so, but you get the general picture. The stage adaptation of A Time to Kill is based on John Grisham’s first novel, which, next to the breakneck legal thrillers that would follow it, presents as grounded and anthropological. But the story still bears the mark of Grisham, whose gift for the vivid refuses any submission to subtlety. It’s the early eighties in small-town Mississippi, and two racist rednecks (Lee Sellars and Dashiell Eaves) brutally rape and nearly murder a 10-year-old black girl. Her father, Carl Lee Hailey (John Douglas Thompson) fears the perps will walk or do light time, institutional racism being what it is - so he methodically guns them...
- 10/21/2013
- by Scott Brown
- Vulture
Regular readers of S & A know that we have been extensively covering the restoration and progress of Shirley Clarke’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason.The film is an unflinching one man portrait of "Jason Holliday, “a queer, black hustler who built his entire life around transgressing the boundaries of segregated, pre-Stonewall America. Out, proud, and politically incorrect."As Jason recounts his story to Clarke, as well as her collaborator Carl Lee and the audience, he tells unbelievable tall tales, performs routines, and challenges the decorum of Clarke, Lee and the audience alike.The restored film made its premiere at the Berlin Film...
- 5/27/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Any regular readers of S & A know that we have been extensively covering the restoration and progress of Shirley Clarke’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason. The film is an unflinching one man portrait of Jason Holliday, “a queer, black hustler who built his entire life around transgressing the boundaries of segregated, pre-Stonewall America. Out, proud, and politically incorrect." As Jason recounts his story to Clarke, as well as her collaborator Carl Lee and the audience, he tells unbelievable tall tales, performs routines, and challenges the decorum of Clarke, Lee and the audience alike. The restored film made its premiere at the Berlin Film...
- 5/2/2013
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Author's next thriller Sycamore Row will see heroic lawyer of Grisham's 1988 bestseller 'fight for justice' once again
Twenty-five years after he made his first appearance, Jake Brigance, the young lawyer defending a black father who has killed his daughter's rapists in John Grisham's debut novel A Time to Kill, is set to return to the literary arena later this year.
Grisham and his publisher Knopf Doubleday announced that the bestselling legal-thriller author was writing a follow-up to 1988's A Time to Kill, in which Brigance will "fight … the good fight once again". Sycamore Row, out this autumn, will see Brigance forced to "fight for justice in a trial that could tear the small town of Clanton apart", said Knopf, promising that "the suspense never rests" in this latest outing from Grisham.
Clanton was also the setting for A Time to Kill, in which Brigance defended Carl Lee Hailey, on...
Twenty-five years after he made his first appearance, Jake Brigance, the young lawyer defending a black father who has killed his daughter's rapists in John Grisham's debut novel A Time to Kill, is set to return to the literary arena later this year.
Grisham and his publisher Knopf Doubleday announced that the bestselling legal-thriller author was writing a follow-up to 1988's A Time to Kill, in which Brigance will "fight … the good fight once again". Sycamore Row, out this autumn, will see Brigance forced to "fight for justice in a trial that could tear the small town of Clanton apart", said Knopf, promising that "the suspense never rests" in this latest outing from Grisham.
Clanton was also the setting for A Time to Kill, in which Brigance defended Carl Lee Hailey, on...
- 5/2/2013
- by Alison Flood
- The Guardian - Film News
Seth: "Stefon, a lot of tourist are being forced to stay in New York because of Hurricane Sandy. Can you give them advice for fun things to do?" Stefon: "Yes. If you like hurrying and canes, New York's hottest club is This Kiss. Club promoter slash all-male Carly Rae Jepsen tribute band Carl Lee Ray and Jep's Son has gone all out, and this place has everything: living photographs, key-tars, people in masks, the lead singer of Puddle of Mudd, bedsheet pants. Seth: "Bedsheet pants?" Stefon: "It’s that thing when a Canadian pop star cuts a few holes in a bedsheet and puts it on her tiny legs."...
- 10/29/2012
- by Jesse David Fox
- Vulture
The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Double Feature for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.
The final offerings for festival are screened this Thursday, February 23rd. The movies are A Raisin In The Sun at 5pm and Super Fly at 7pm.
A Raisin In The Sun (1961) is based on the first play on Broadway ever written by a black woman, Lorraine Hansberry and some of the events written in A Raisin In The Sun were experienced by her personally, most particularly her own family’s...
The final offerings for festival are screened this Thursday, February 23rd. The movies are A Raisin In The Sun at 5pm and Super Fly at 7pm.
A Raisin In The Sun (1961) is based on the first play on Broadway ever written by a black woman, Lorraine Hansberry and some of the events written in A Raisin In The Sun were experienced by her personally, most particularly her own family’s...
- 2/21/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Shout! Factory once again is giving us a double feature DVD, one a blaxploitation film set in New York City and the other a gritty noir-flavored film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Both have the connection to the war itself. And I’ll be the first to say that they are both worth your time, forgotten gems that have never seen the light of a DVD release until now.
Ossie Davis directs Gordon’s War, actor and director who made what I consider the finest blaxploitation film around (Cotton Comes To Harlem) and he does wonders with a tried and through plot consisting of a man on a mission of revenge against those who wronged the people of his neighborhood in the mode of good ol’ 70′s vigilante justice. Gordon Hudson (Paul Winfield) comes home from the Vietnam War where he finds out that his wife has died from a heroin overdose.
Ossie Davis directs Gordon’s War, actor and director who made what I consider the finest blaxploitation film around (Cotton Comes To Harlem) and he does wonders with a tried and through plot consisting of a man on a mission of revenge against those who wronged the people of his neighborhood in the mode of good ol’ 70′s vigilante justice. Gordon Hudson (Paul Winfield) comes home from the Vietnam War where he finds out that his wife has died from a heroin overdose.
- 7/4/2011
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Curtiss Cook (Shutter Island, How to Make it in America, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent) has signed on to join the cast of an upcoming Nicholas Jarecki drama/thriller film, titled Arbitrage.
In the film, a troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
Cook will be staring alongside Tim Roth, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, amongst others.
Cook will play Detective Mills, partner to Tim Roth’s Detective Gower, both investigating a murder.
And in addition to that role, I’m told that Mr Curtiss (who also has a musical theater history – Lion King and Miss Saigon specifically) has also signed on to co-star in Tony winner Bill T. Jones’ upcoming Super Fly Broadway musical!
In Super Fly, the musical, Curtiss plays Eddie (played by Carl Lee in the film...
In the film, a troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
Cook will be staring alongside Tim Roth, Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, amongst others.
Cook will play Detective Mills, partner to Tim Roth’s Detective Gower, both investigating a murder.
And in addition to that role, I’m told that Mr Curtiss (who also has a musical theater history – Lion King and Miss Saigon specifically) has also signed on to co-star in Tony winner Bill T. Jones’ upcoming Super Fly Broadway musical!
In Super Fly, the musical, Curtiss plays Eddie (played by Carl Lee in the film...
- 4/19/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Here's a great video compliation of 150 famous movie lines and catch-phrases that we've come to know and love over the years. The great thing about movie quotes for film geeks like myself, is that whenever the moment presents itself we can always bust out a movie quote to throw into a conversation for a good laugh.
I will say most of these quotes are obvious, but it's still fun. The video below was created by David Balboa. Enjoy!
Here’s a list of each quote from the video, and who said it, from Balboa's blog Exophrine.
“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”
- Beetlejuice
- Lydia, summoning Beetlejuice “It’s showtime!”
- Beetlejuice
- Beetlejuice, being summoned. “They’re heeeere!”
- Poltergeist
- Carol Anne Freeling, notifying her parents of the spirits present “Hey you guys!”
- The Goonies
- Sloth, calling the attention of the children he’s about to save “Good morning,...
I will say most of these quotes are obvious, but it's still fun. The video below was created by David Balboa. Enjoy!
Here’s a list of each quote from the video, and who said it, from Balboa's blog Exophrine.
“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”
- Beetlejuice
- Lydia, summoning Beetlejuice “It’s showtime!”
- Beetlejuice
- Beetlejuice, being summoned. “They’re heeeere!”
- Poltergeist
- Carol Anne Freeling, notifying her parents of the spirits present “Hey you guys!”
- The Goonies
- Sloth, calling the attention of the children he’s about to save “Good morning,...
- 3/5/2011
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Movie quotes are the currency by which we pay respect to our favorite films. We grab them out of our pockets at the most appropriate, or inappropriate, times, adding our love of a movie to an advancing conversation. Sometimes these quotes are insignificant lines you and your friends hold near to your hearts but, most of the time, these lines are the ones we all know and love. David Balboa, who runs a blog called Exophrine, edited together 150 of lines and catch phrases just like that into one, cool little video. Included are such diverse films as The Princess Bride, Rocky IV, Aliens, Toy Story, Die Hard, Citizen Kane and many more. Check it out, as well as the full rundown of what's in it, after the jump. Thanks to Balboa and his Exophrine blog [1] for this awesome video. And here's the list of each quote, and who said it,...
- 3/5/2011
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
40 Actors And Actresses We Love40 Actors and Actresses We LoveWith the Academy Awards announced this morning, all eyes are fixed on Hollywood. Even though no Black actors and actresses were nominated this year, we take a moment to honor 40 actresses and actors we love. Their work has made us laugh, made us cry, allowed us to step away from the pressures of our day-to-day lives, and taught us more about ourselves and our culture. Check out who made our list. Who would you add?Jennifer HudsonFavorite role: Effie White in "Dreamgirls." Won Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in 2007.Halle BerryFavorite role: Leticia Musgrove in "Monster's Ball." Won Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2002.Jamie FoxxFavorite role: Ray Charles in "Ray." Won Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in 2005.Nia LongFavorite role: Nina Mosley in "Love Jones.
- 1/26/2011
- Essence
Joel Schumacher followed up Batman Forever with a march back into the world of John Grisham. We look back at A Time To Kill...
"Until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be even-handed. It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices." - Jake
The Recap
After having huge box office, if not critical success with Batman Forever, Joel Schumacher's next film would see him going back to his more dramatic roots, adapting another of John Grisham's bestsellers for the big screen.
Set in rural Mississippi, two white supremacists come across Tonya Hailey (RaeVen Larrymore Kelly), a 10-year-old black girl making her way home. The two brutally attack and rape her before trying to hang her from a tree. After the hanging fails, the two dump her body in a nearby river hoping that the elements will take their toll and kill her.
"Until we can see each other as equals, justice is never going to be even-handed. It will remain nothing more than a reflection of our own prejudices." - Jake
The Recap
After having huge box office, if not critical success with Batman Forever, Joel Schumacher's next film would see him going back to his more dramatic roots, adapting another of John Grisham's bestsellers for the big screen.
Set in rural Mississippi, two white supremacists come across Tonya Hailey (RaeVen Larrymore Kelly), a 10-year-old black girl making her way home. The two brutally attack and rape her before trying to hang her from a tree. After the hanging fails, the two dump her body in a nearby river hoping that the elements will take their toll and kill her.
- 4/21/2010
- Den of Geek
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