CUFF.DOCS screening #10
This isn't a doc, not sure how it got into a doc festival. It's about as real as an episode of Pawn Stars complete with an elderly realitive bumbling around the store. Every interaction is so set up and take it completely took me out of the beauty of the handmade guitars. The moments of genuine emotion are so few and far between because they non actors are sticking to some sort of script. Let Rick Kelly tell his damn story and don't feed him lines.

Carmine Street Guitars is a simple and lovely documentary capturing the legendary guitar store in the West Village of NYC over the course of five days. A lot of the film is professional musicians stopping in to play guitars and we get to hear them talk about their life and the significance of this shop to their playing. It’s hard to tell how much is staged and planned, but everything comes across geniune. A wonderful piece for any guitar lovers out there

Probably the most staged and stilted documentary you will ever watch. Its hard to see how this was a Jarmusch 'instigated' project given how it fails to fulfill his hangout style with any authenticity, but despite dramatic problems its dagginess is still winning. It's just nice to see these people so pleased by music and craftsmanship.

Everyone has someone in their life whose dream film would be watching semi-famous guitarists come into a handcrafted guitar store, talk shop, and jam out. You know - the type who says "listen to that reverb!" or "this neck has such a great feel!" nonironically. Barely functional for most other audiences- the staged conversations are often awkward and the film assiduously skirts any larger kind of statements - but I've spent enough time in bands I liked it ok. If the thought of seeing Bill Frisell noodle for two minutes and Nels Cline pick out a gift for Jeff Tweedy makes your pulse quicken, this is your film. (And are all the Eleanor Friedberger songs that great? I gave her a wide berth after those early Fiery Furnaces records, which did little for me, but her song was the highlight.)

This documentary film about a legendary guitar maker in NYC is so awkward and slow that at times it feels like a disastrous sizzle reel for a workplace reality show. But that is the great strength it has, it embraces the quiet of the moment and, much like Rick Kelly, the subject, doesn't seem to give a shit about the pace of the market.

Ron Mann is certainly feeding Rick and his various famous and lesser-known musical friends the talking points for their little chats. The exchanges are so halting that you feel great comfort in knowing that nobody is putting anything on.

Lovely music by the Sadie's too. A really happy slice of life.

Meh.......There was something really cringe and staged about a lot of this. It felt like an extended ad for the store. Not a lot of artistry in the filmmaking. The guitars however were BEAUTIFUL.

This film helped me shake hands with and talk to Jim Jarmusch.

The vibe is always deep and the groove is always sweet in Ron Mann’s lovely portrait of a week in the life of luthier Rick Kelly’s eponymous ground floor shop. Here, with help from his 93-year-old mother (and bookkeeper) and young apprentice Cindy Hulej, Kelly builds new guitars out of “the bones of old New York,” i.e. timber discarded from storied spots like the Hotel Chelsea and McSorley’s. A few regular customers—including Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Charlie Sexton, Marc Ribot, and the film’s “instigator,” Jim Jarmusch—drop in along the way for repairs or test runs of Rick’s newest models. Or just to hang out and be with the music.

Playing on October 6 & 8 at the 56th NYFF.

This is a really nice pilot for a tlc show but definitely not a documentary lol

Really great slice of life documentary. If you love guitars, craftsmanship, or old New York - this should be right up your alley!

In a world obsessed with how to be better/acquire more/win, this is a film about contentment. It's startling in its simplicity. Gentle, humble, almost hypnotic. I'm a hack guitar player and documentary fanatic. This simply hit a sweet spot for me. Some of the criticism of the film is around it "not being enough" or "slight." Oddly, I think that's what I loved about it. Simple human truths. The small rituals of craftsmanship. Unaccompanied guitar playing. Breath in. Breath out. Strum. It's just amazing to see a protagonist at peace. Rule-breaking in that regard.

「2021 府中放映。紀錄片，卡邁爾街吉他，手工製作吉他，鋸木、上膠、彩繪。收音很不錯，細節舒服。太多正反打，比較適合當劇情片看。老店主很有人格魅力，溫和但堅定。Bill Frisell、Lou reed。字幕跑完又再補了一個鏡頭。」──2021.01.19

amazon

This is a really nice pilot for a tlc show but definitely not a documentary lol

All hail The Sadies.

Really great slice of life documentary. If you love guitars, craftsmanship, or old New York - this should be right up your alley!

E beautifull film for the electric guitar lovers

Beautiful documentary for a rainy afternoon.

Some serious strumming and picking on handcrafted guitars, salvaged antique wood, a love for trees, questionable takes on invasive pests, and genial drop-ins by people I never expected at the door make for a pleasant few days in a Greenwich Village shop in New York.

電影介紹：
中產階級崛起，拜金主義入侵，在早已不是紐約波希米亞文化重鎮的格林威治村，有一家時間彷彿仍停留在六十年代的手工吉他客製坊，名為「卡爾邁街吉他」(Carmine Street Guitars)。瑞克凱利（Rick Kelly）是「卡爾邁街吉他」的資深製琴師暨創辦人，數十年來，他走遍格林威治村內被都更，被拆毀的老旅館、老酒吧、老教堂，尋找被閒置，被丟棄的百年老建材、老傢俱作為回收木材，再經其鬼斧神工的精雕細琢之後，遂化身為一把又一把外型獨一無二，音色獨樹一幟的手作吉他。不僅展現出令人肅然起敬的職人精神，更傳承著日漸受後人遺忘的格林威治村歷史文化，因此成為手工吉他收藏家間的夢幻逸品。
本片導演朗曼 （Ron Mann）花上五天時間跟拍，以純然的旁觀角度，紀錄瑞克凱利與其得意門生辛蒂胡蕾（Cindy Hulej）慢工出細活的製琴過程，以及製琴師與眾「琴人」間真摯動人的互動對話。
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好好看喔！本片最驚喜的地方大概是the kills吉他手的出現。
看他彈著吉他，以及述說接受物理治療的過程，眼睛發亮的樣子，我覺得他是真的很喜歡Rick Kelly製作的吉他，或是說，我相信每個人真的都很喜歡Rick Kelly做的吉他，當然也很愛音樂、很愛吉他。
意猶未盡的81分鐘。

This documentary film about a legendary guitar maker in NYC is so awkward and slow that at times it feels like a disastrous sizzle reel for a workplace reality show. But that is the great strength it has, it embraces the quiet of the moment and, much like Rick Kelly, the subject, doesn't seem to give a shit about the pace of the market.

Ron Mann is certainly feeding Rick and his various famous and lesser-known musical friends the talking points for their little chats. The exchanges are so halting that you feel great comfort in knowing that nobody is putting anything on.

Lovely music by the Sadie's too. A really happy slice of life.