Utopia and OCN Distribution will be teaming up on Oct. 27 for the Blu-ray debut of a very unique film. A “crafted” documentary titled Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.
The corner bar, that place in the small, often dated strip mall, sharing the parking lot with a beauty shop, check cashing place, a small Thai restaurant and maybe even a neighborhood liquor store, is the subject of documentary filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross.
You drive by them all of the time, but unless you are a regular, you probably pay these watering holes no mind, but for those who do, they call these places home; it is where friends and “family” gather to commiserate.
Brothers Bill and Turner Ross make award-winning documentary films. They once did one about the day in the life of a zip code, another one followed the three Zanders brothers around New Orleans one night, another was about their own adventures on a makeshift houseboat and yet another concerned the border towns of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico.
Sort of “slice-of-life” snapshots. Cinema verité, if you will. Their latest documentary, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, opened at Sundance in January of this year. Remember when there was a time without Covid-19 and people attended film festivals … and drank with their friends at bars!!
The brothers freely admit that their film is a bit of a cheat and although it received a Grand Jury Prize nomination in the Documentary category at Sundance (losing out to Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ Boys State), it is actually a carefully crafted bit of fiction; a well-told story.
Sure, it feels like a documentary, the people are real, but the set-up is fiction, or should we say, fanciful. If you loved This is Spinal Tap (a fiction), A Mighty Wind (a fiction) and Best in Show (also a fiction), then you have a pretty good idea where Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets … except the people are real, not actors.
They wanted to do a film about neighborhood bars. What was it about them that was universal? What would be the perfect bar? Is there like a check list? But, more importantly, they wanted to capture the essence of why sharing drinks and conversations, in a public place, has such appeal … such loyalty.
The film is set up like this. We are told that it is a bar called “The Roaring 20s” in Las Vegas, Nevada and that the regulars have gathered for the closing night of the bar … tomorrow, no more.
In fact, the interior is a bar in New Orleans and the brothers had access to it for two nights … 18 hours of filming. They then recruited regulars of that bar and others in the New Orleans area and just let them be themselves while the brothers filmed them.
What emerges is a film that is like a stage play, characters come, go and we are treated to 90 minutes of what it is like to be a fly on the wall in a neighborhood bar. Entertaining, fascinating, and, certainly, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is like no other “documentary” that you will ever see.
So, dive-in and enjoy the festivities on Oct. 27 as Utopia and OCN Distribution deliver the Blu-ray debut of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets. Bonus features include the featurette titled “After Hours,” security camera footage and a featurette about Las Vegas.
No comments:
Post a Comment