On the Bowery

United States

1957

65 Min

Black and White

1.33:1

English

Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
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SCR Lionel Rogosin, Richard Bagley, Mark Sufrin

CAST Gorman Hendricks, Frank Matthews, Ray Salyer

Born in New York City, Lionel Rogosin, the son of a prominent industrialist, was a chemistry major at Yale and a Navy engineer before becoming the director of several socially conscious documentaries in the mid-’50s. His first, On the Bowery, won an award at the 1956 Venice Film Festival. His next film, a secretly filmed look at South African life, Come Back Africa (1959), earned him international acclaim. Rogosin then became known as the owner of the prestigious Bleecker Street Cinema, a now-defunct art theater in Greenwich Village. He also continued working on the occasional documentary through the early ’70s. —allmovie guide

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JP Carpio

2Nov12

One of the finest examples of dispelling the illusion of the hero narrative. It is never I, it is always us.

Kyle Lewis

29Sep12

Phenomenal footage of 50's downtown Manhattan. Rogosin crafts a film that feels like a precursor to what the Dardenne's brothers are up to now. Can't wait to check out Come Back Africa.

filmcapsule

24Aug12

It may not all be “true” documentary footage in the conventional sense, but it’s a potent and vivid document of a very specific time and place. The poetic montages that bookend the film, beautifully shot and edited, speak with immediacy across the gap of time that separates us from 1950s New York and approach pure cinema. http://filmcapsule.com/2012/08/22/on-the-bowery-1956/