On the Bowery

synopsis

Every morning in New York’s Bowery, homeless men lounge around in the streets, slowly emerging from their hangovers and setting out on their daily pilgrimage to a miserable job and a drink. The social situation of people on the fringes of affluent 1950s American society became the subject of Lionel Rogosin’s first feature film. Exceptional in its day, the format of docufiction combines staged footage with social actors and situational scenes from the streets, dive bars, and charitable institutions. The titular neighborhood transforms into a stage for absurd everyday dramas of repeated mistakes and the inability to leave a place where few people actually want to live.

“Making On the Bowery taught me a method of molding reality into a form that could touch the imagination of others.” (Lionel Rogosin)

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Source: https://www.splittoothmedia.com/on-the-bowery/

biography

Lionel Rogosin (1924–2000) was an American independent documentary director for whom filmmaking became a part of a broader political activism. He made several notable films, co-founded the New American Cinema movement, and operated the Bleecker Street Cinema in New York City.

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director:

Lionel Rogosin

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