‘THE JAZZ LOFT PROJECT, according to W. Eugene Smith’, screening on 30th November, 18:30, Widcombe Social Club
PhotoBath, in partnership with Off the Wall films and Bath Jazz Weekend, are presenting a rare UK screening of ‘The Jazz Loft, according to W. Eugene Smith’, at Widcombe Social Club on Sunday, 30th November at 18:30.
In 1957, the celebrated war photographer and Newsweek/Life photo-essayist W. Eugene Smith left his wife, four children and successful career behind and took up residence in a clapped-out, five storey block on Sixth Avenue, New York. He immediately set about wiring the entire building for sound and taking thousands of photographs, exhaustively documenting the activities of the artists and jazz musicians for whom the building was an after-hours hang-out and performance space. The resulting vast archive, accumulated over a period of eight years, gives insight into a unique late ‘50s/early ’60s NY hub of creativity. It included recordings, footage and still photos of Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Giuffre, Roland Kirk, Zoot Sims and dozens of others, and fascinating birds-eye shots of the flourishing ‘Flower District’ street life. Nighttime visitors included Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Salvador Dali.
The film provides a central window into Smith’s obsessive and all-consuming chronicling of every aspect of the building and its occupants, and was Smith’s most ambitious documentary project. His vast archive of 40,000 photographs and 1,740 reels of audiotapes was discovered in 1998 and subsequently catalogued by Sam Stephenson, and finally made into the film in 2015 by Sara Fishko.
“…a fascinating look at a bygone era and at the luminaries who provided an entire city – and the world – with its energy and creative vibe.” – Cinema365
“An exceptionally vivid picture of bohemian life during one of New York City’s most exciting eras.” – The Hollywood Reporter
“It is also a glimpse inside the frenetic mind of a photographic pioneer; an obsessive, maverick genius, who died, poor and relatively unsung, in 1978, leaving behind some 22 tons of archive material, including his unfinished and ultimately unfinishable jazz project.” – The Guardian
Booking info for the one-time screening at:
tinyurl.com/tyfd4jb2
