Dewy-eyed chatter meets master craftsmanship in this loving behind-the-scenes look at a treasured New York emporium
This extraordinarily pleasant, restful film is essentially the digital equivalent of hanging out in the Manhattan shop of the title, a Greenwich Village institution of sorts where master craftsman Rick Kelly and his young apprentice Cindy Hulej make and sell guitars. At one point early on, Hulej puts down her blowtorch and brushes and steps back to photograph her latest creation for Instagram, assigning the label “#guitarporn” – really, that could just as easily been a title for the whole film. It is 80 minutes of pure woodwork-musicianship-upcycling erotica for a very specialist but passionate market.
Related: Carmine Street Guitars: tuning up with New York's finest plank-spankers...
This extraordinarily pleasant, restful film is essentially the digital equivalent of hanging out in the Manhattan shop of the title, a Greenwich Village institution of sorts where master craftsman Rick Kelly and his young apprentice Cindy Hulej make and sell guitars. At one point early on, Hulej puts down her blowtorch and brushes and steps back to photograph her latest creation for Instagram, assigning the label “#guitarporn” – really, that could just as easily been a title for the whole film. It is 80 minutes of pure woodwork-musicianship-upcycling erotica for a very specialist but passionate market.
Related: Carmine Street Guitars: tuning up with New York's finest plank-spankers...
- 6/26/2020
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
In the heart of Greenwich Village, New York City sits a shop unlike any other. Run by Rick Kelly, Carmine Street Guitars has been building custom made guitars for years. In this quaint documentary, Ron Mann takes the audiences into the heart of Kelly’s operation – crafting beautiful and rich guitars for residents and famous musicians alike. Utilising wood from New York’s buildings, Kelly crafts exceptional guitars with the help of his elderly mother and young apprentice Cindy Hulej.
Told in a neat 80 minute runtime, Mann’s documentary is without talking heads, narration, or flashbacks. Instead, he nestles the camera right in the middle of the action and allows Kelly and Hulej to gradually reveal secrets of the wood and the guitars on display. The character of the instruments made and, therefore Kelly himself , are told through impeccable riffs and customer interactions, giving you a bigger appreciation for how...
Told in a neat 80 minute runtime, Mann’s documentary is without talking heads, narration, or flashbacks. Instead, he nestles the camera right in the middle of the action and allows Kelly and Hulej to gradually reveal secrets of the wood and the guitars on display. The character of the instruments made and, therefore Kelly himself , are told through impeccable riffs and customer interactions, giving you a bigger appreciation for how...
- 6/24/2020
- by Sarah Cook
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith all played guitars made from wood salvaged from New York buildings. Now there’s a documentary about the eccentric genius who crafted them
Rick Kelly’s guitar shop occupies the ground floor of a red brick tenement at 42 Carmine Street in New York’s West Village. Kelly has been building, repairing and talking guitars on the site since 1991, having spent the 1970s punk era around the corner on Downing Street. “The city was real gritty and dirty back then, you couldn’t even walk in Central Park, you’d get mugged for sure,” Kelly says. “I liked it that way.”
Carmine Street Guitars, the subject of a delightful documentary by Ron Mann, is one of the last redoubts of “Old New York” as Kelly calls it. On a typical day, Kelly’s elderly mother Dorothy will be working the cash register; his 26-year-old apprentice Cindy Hulej,...
Rick Kelly’s guitar shop occupies the ground floor of a red brick tenement at 42 Carmine Street in New York’s West Village. Kelly has been building, repairing and talking guitars on the site since 1991, having spent the 1970s punk era around the corner on Downing Street. “The city was real gritty and dirty back then, you couldn’t even walk in Central Park, you’d get mugged for sure,” Kelly says. “I liked it that way.”
Carmine Street Guitars, the subject of a delightful documentary by Ron Mann, is one of the last redoubts of “Old New York” as Kelly calls it. On a typical day, Kelly’s elderly mother Dorothy will be working the cash register; his 26-year-old apprentice Cindy Hulej,...
- 6/17/2020
- by Richard Godwin
- The Guardian - Film News
At a time when leaders spout lies and cries of “fake news” put reputable media outlets in doubt, audiences showed an astonishing appetite for nonfiction filmmaking. This year, more than 15 documentaries crossed the $1 million mark in theaters, ranging from high-profile concert films (such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Western Stars” and “Bring the Soul: The Movie”) to powerful human interest stories (“Maiden” and “The Biggest Little Farm”). Revolutionary “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson pushed the boundaries of the medium yet again, bringing fresh dimension to century-old World War I footage in his 3D doc “They Shall Not Grow Old”, while high-frame-rate eco doc “Aquarela” changed the way we look at water. All told, it was an incredibly strong year for documentaries, amid which Variety film critics Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman singled out these 10 as their favorites.
1. “The Hottest August”
When you think of climate change documentaries, chances...
1. “The Hottest August”
When you think of climate change documentaries, chances...
- 12/21/2019
- by Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
By now, audiences have caught on to the way American distributors tend to stockpile their quality movies for end-of-year award-season release, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t treasures to be found in the first two quarters. In fact, sometimes it’s the movies that aren’t making a self-important Oscar push that wind up hitting closest to our hearts — and providing respite from such recent turkeys as “The Beach Bum” and “Wonder Park.” With quality to be found everywhere from blockbuster superhero sagas to niche-release art-house fare, it turns out 2019 is off to a good start. Variety chief critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge pick their favorite releases of the year so far.
Avengers: Endgame Marvel Studios
In his Variety review, Peter Debruge called it “the ultimate fan-service follow-up,” and that nails the riveting and cathartic satisfactions — and, just maybe, the built-in obsolescence — of this toweringly crafted and...
Avengers: Endgame Marvel Studios
In his Variety review, Peter Debruge called it “the ultimate fan-service follow-up,” and that nails the riveting and cathartic satisfactions — and, just maybe, the built-in obsolescence — of this toweringly crafted and...
- 6/15/2019
- by Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The mega rollout of Avengers: Endgame this weekend has put some pause to what has been a plentiful roster of new specialty titles in recent weeks. One distribution exec last week said off the record that most companies are holding off to wait out the juggernaut’s opening. Perhaps most are but not all. Sony Pictures Classics is opening Ralph Fiennes-directed bio-drama The White Crow in five locations in New York and L.A., offering audiences in search of a non-Marvel alternative a well-received option. The company had success with Fiennes’ previous directorial effort, 2013’s The Invisible Woman. Abramorama, meanwhile, is heading out with Venice 2018 premiere Carmine Street Guitars. The company said the documentary is set for a long “slow burn” in theaters. First Run Features is opening fellow nonfiction title Chasing Portraits by Elizabeth Rynecki, which chronicles her search for paintings created by her great-grandfather, Moshe Rynecki,...
- 4/26/2019
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
Head over to Greenwich Village, go up Bleecker Street, just a few blocks past 6th Avenue, and then make a left. Keep walking until you get to 42 Carmine Street. That’s where you’ll find Rick Kelly. The Long Island native with the gray hair and the slightly oversized black t-shirt might be ambling around the retail section of the storefront, which he opened up in 1990. He might be talking to his elderly mom Dorothy, who balances the books, answers the phones and dusts the framed pics of Kelly standing...
- 4/24/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
“Carmine Street Guitars” is a one-of-a-kind documentary that exudes a gentle, homespun magic. It’s a no-fuss, 80-minute-long portrait of Rick Kelly, who builds and sells custom guitars out of a modest storefront on Carmine Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, and the film touches on obsessions that have been popping up, like fragrant weeds, in the world of documentary. “Carmine Street Guitars” is all about the weirdly grounded pleasures of analog culture; about the glory of hand-made artisanal objects in a world dominated by mass corporate production; about the aging, and persistence, of old-school jazz and rock ‘n’ roll; about the fading of bohemia in a world of rising rents, omnivorous bottom lines, and chain-store values; and about how all those themes fuse into a Zen ideal of doing what you love and loving what you do.
The film sounds earnest and touching in a minor, twilight-of-the-’60s way.
The film sounds earnest and touching in a minor, twilight-of-the-’60s way.
- 4/20/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Tony Sokol Apr 18, 2019
Trees grow in Brooklyn. In Greenwich Village, Rick Kelly reclaims older wood for Carmine Street Guitars, we learn in this clip.
Wood resonates, as Ricky Kelly points out in this clip from the upcoming documentary Carmine Street Guitars, that's why he chooses old growth and white pine in his custom guitars. You can hear the difference in the sound. Kelly makes his guitars from the “bones of old New York," reclaimed white pine beams frame from buildings constructed in the 1800s.
Directed by Ron Mann, Carmine Street Guitars captures five days in the life of Carmine Street Guitars, where musicians like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Patti Smith picked, strummed and bought. The film doesn't only capture the store: it encapsulates a passing moment in time.
"Once the center of the New York bohemia, Greenwich Village is now home to lux restaurants, and buzzer door clothing stores catering to the nouveau riche,...
Trees grow in Brooklyn. In Greenwich Village, Rick Kelly reclaims older wood for Carmine Street Guitars, we learn in this clip.
Wood resonates, as Ricky Kelly points out in this clip from the upcoming documentary Carmine Street Guitars, that's why he chooses old growth and white pine in his custom guitars. You can hear the difference in the sound. Kelly makes his guitars from the “bones of old New York," reclaimed white pine beams frame from buildings constructed in the 1800s.
Directed by Ron Mann, Carmine Street Guitars captures five days in the life of Carmine Street Guitars, where musicians like Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Patti Smith picked, strummed and bought. The film doesn't only capture the store: it encapsulates a passing moment in time.
"Once the center of the New York bohemia, Greenwich Village is now home to lux restaurants, and buzzer door clothing stores catering to the nouveau riche,...
- 4/15/2019
- Den of Geek
Cindy Hulej on Only Lovers Left Alive: "I relate a lot to that movie on multiple levels. And for Paterson I customised the guitar in that." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
While I was talking with Rick Kelly at his work bench in the back of the shop of Carmine Street Guitars, Ed Bahlman was having a lively conversation with Cindy Hulej on music. The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Blixa Bargeld, Rowland S Howard and Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire were being discussed.
Cindy told me that she customised a guitar for Golshifteh Farahani to play in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson, which also starred Adam Driver. Driver is now in New York tearing up the stage opposite Keri Russell in the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, directed by Michael Mayer, and he will soon be seen in Jarmusch's Cannes Film...
While I was talking with Rick Kelly at his work bench in the back of the shop of Carmine Street Guitars, Ed Bahlman was having a lively conversation with Cindy Hulej on music. The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Blixa Bargeld, Rowland S Howard and Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire were being discussed.
Cindy told me that she customised a guitar for Golshifteh Farahani to play in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson, which also starred Adam Driver. Driver is now in New York tearing up the stage opposite Keri Russell in the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, directed by Michael Mayer, and he will soon be seen in Jarmusch's Cannes Film...
- 4/14/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Rick Kelly with Anne-Katrin Titze at Carmine Street Guitars on instigator Jim Jarmusch: "I really like The Limits of Control because there's some of my dialogue that's in that movie." Photo: Ed Bahlman
In Ron Mann's welcoming Carmine Street Guitars (a New York Film Festival highlight in Spotlight on Documentary), dedicated to Jonathan Demme, featuring the mastery of Rick Kelly and Cindy Hulej we go into the woods.
Jim Jarmusch, along with Eszter Balint, Patti Smith's Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Charlie Sexton, Marc Ribot (Alexandre Moors' The Yellow Birds), Eleanor Friedberger, Christine Bougie of the Bahamas, Wilko's Nels Cline, The Roots' Kirk Douglas, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Lou Reed's guitar tech Stewart Hurwood, Dallas Good and Travis Good of The Sadies, who also composed the music for the documentary, all appear in the shop and play guitar except one.
Rick Kelly: "I really...
In Ron Mann's welcoming Carmine Street Guitars (a New York Film Festival highlight in Spotlight on Documentary), dedicated to Jonathan Demme, featuring the mastery of Rick Kelly and Cindy Hulej we go into the woods.
Jim Jarmusch, along with Eszter Balint, Patti Smith's Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Charlie Sexton, Marc Ribot (Alexandre Moors' The Yellow Birds), Eleanor Friedberger, Christine Bougie of the Bahamas, Wilko's Nels Cline, The Roots' Kirk Douglas, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Lou Reed's guitar tech Stewart Hurwood, Dallas Good and Travis Good of The Sadies, who also composed the music for the documentary, all appear in the shop and play guitar except one.
Rick Kelly: "I really...
- 4/7/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"You got any guitars for sale?" Abramorama has debuted an official trailer for an indie music documentary titled Carmine Street Guitars, made by Canadian filmmaker Ron Mann, profiling the iconic guitar store in NYC where Rick Kelly makes custom guitars. Kelly has been making guitars at his Greenwich Village shop for decades, "using preserved and repurposed wood scavenged from historic New York buildings. His list of customers is legendary, and many — Patti Smith Group co-founder Lenny Kaye, Eleanor Friedberger, Charlie Sexton, Bill Frisell, director and part-time guitarist Jim Jarmusch — show up to perform, talk gear, and tell stories about everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Bob Dylan." The doc shows us five days in the life of the iconic Greenwich Village store, examining an all-too-quickly vanishing way of life. Looks quite inspiring. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Ron Mann's doc Carmine Street Guitars, direct from YouTube: Once the centre of NYC's bohemia,...
- 3/27/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Abramorama has acquired U.S. rights to Carmine Street Guitars, the Ron Mann-directed documentary that takes a snapshot of Rick Kelly’s fabled Greenwich Village shop where he makes guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. The instruments have been used by the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Patti Smith.
The film, which shows a a week in the life of the shop alongside Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, features devotees to the craft including Jim Jarmusch, Wilco’s Nels Cline, The Roots’ Kirk Douglas, Bill Frisell, Dave Hill and Charlie Sexton. The pic premiered at the Venice Film Festival, then hit Toronto and is next up screening Saturday at the New York Film Fetstival.
Abramorama plans a spring theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum.
“I’ve been handling Ron’s films in the U.S. since Comic Book Confidential...
The film, which shows a a week in the life of the shop alongside Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, features devotees to the craft including Jim Jarmusch, Wilco’s Nels Cline, The Roots’ Kirk Douglas, Bill Frisell, Dave Hill and Charlie Sexton. The pic premiered at the Venice Film Festival, then hit Toronto and is next up screening Saturday at the New York Film Fetstival.
Abramorama plans a spring theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum.
“I’ve been handling Ron’s films in the U.S. since Comic Book Confidential...
- 10/5/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
The Toronto International Film Festival is a grab-bag — all fests are, of course — but the 43rd annual edition of what’s arguably the major North American film event of any given year felt like an especially whiplash-inducing, something-for-every-film-nerd get-together this year. You could walk out of a prestige-seeking, Oscar-courting drama about parents dealing with drug-addict kids (there were a few to choose from) and right into a an eight-hour Chinese documentary about Communist “re-education” camps. You had your choice of watching Natalie Portman, Elle Fanning or Lady Gaga play pop...
- 9/16/2018
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Bill Frisell, a member of John Zorn’s Naked City and the man who provided the music for the TV version of Gary Larson’s The Far Side, talks Fender Mustang guitars and The Astronauts in this exclusive clip of doc Carmine Street Guitars, which premieres next week in Venice.
The doc, which has its world premiere in Venice on September 3 before airing in Toronto and New York, was instigated by filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch and tells the story of the fabled Greenwich Village guitar shop.
Directed by Ron Mann (Altman), it follows custom guitar-maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, who build handcrafted guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. Fans have included Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Jarmusch.
The doc, which is exec produced by Gimme Shelter’s Carter Logan with music from The Sadies, feature Frisell, Nels Cline (Wilco), Kirk Douglas (The Roots), Eleanor Friedberger,...
The doc, which has its world premiere in Venice on September 3 before airing in Toronto and New York, was instigated by filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch and tells the story of the fabled Greenwich Village guitar shop.
Directed by Ron Mann (Altman), it follows custom guitar-maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, who build handcrafted guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. Fans have included Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Jarmusch.
The doc, which is exec produced by Gimme Shelter’s Carter Logan with music from The Sadies, feature Frisell, Nels Cline (Wilco), Kirk Douglas (The Roots), Eleanor Friedberger,...
- 8/30/2018
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival.
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.
The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...
- 8/22/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
New documentary “Carmine Street Guitars” will have its world premier at the Venice Film Festival. The Ron Mann-directed film chronicles a week in the life of Greenwich Village guitar maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej. Kelly’s method is unique: he builds his guitars out of wood salvaged from old New York City buildings constructed in the 1800s or as he calls it, “the bones of old New York.” Artists like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan have owned Kelly’s guitars, which feature parts taken from such iconic Manhattan locales as the Hotel Chelsea and Chumley’s pub.
The doc brings musicians of all stripes — including Patti Smith Band’s Lenny Kaye, Kirk Douglas of The Roots, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline of Wilco, Marc Ribot, Ester Baling, Dallas and Travis Good of The Sadies and Dylan six-stringer Charlie Sexton — to the shop.
The doc brings musicians of all stripes — including Patti Smith Band’s Lenny Kaye, Kirk Douglas of The Roots, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline of Wilco, Marc Ribot, Ester Baling, Dallas and Travis Good of The Sadies and Dylan six-stringer Charlie Sexton — to the shop.
- 7/25/2018
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
'Trumbo' movie: Bryan Cranston as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and Helen Mirren as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. 'Trumbo' movie review: Highly entertaining 'history lesson' Full disclosure: on the wall in my study hangs a poster – the iconic photograph of blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, with black-horned rim glasses, handlebar mustache, a smoke dangling from the end of a dramatic cigarette holder. He's sitting – stark naked – in a tub surrounded by his particular writing apparatus. He's looking directly into the camera of the photographer, his daughter Mitzi. Dalton Trumbo's son, Christopher Trumbo, gave me the poster after my interview with him for the release of Peter Askin's 2007 documentary also titled Trumbo. That film combines archival footage, including family movies and photographs, with performances of the senior Trumbo's letters to his family during their many years of turmoil before and through the blacklist, including his time in prison. The letters are read by,...
- 11/7/2015
- by Tim Cogshell
- Alt Film Guide
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