Music Docs, Through East Enders’ Lenses
Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will open its East End Music Film Series on Sunday at 2 p.m. with a screening of Sharyn Felder’s “A.K.A. Doc Pomus.” Hosted by Suzy Elmiger, an accomplished film editor, the series will also feature D.A. Pennebaker’s “Company” and his first film, “Daybreak Express,” on Feb. 7 and “Voices of Sarafina!” by Nigel Nobel on Feb. 28, both at 2 p.m. All three filmmakers will be present for the screenings.
Ms. Elmiger, who is a part-time resident of Sag Harbor, works primarily in fiction films and television but started in documentaries. A friend who is active at Bay Street suggested she propose a short series of films. “My favorite documentaries remain music films,” she said, “so I cooked up this idea of East End filmmakers who have made them.”
“A.K.A. Doc Pomus” is the story of Jerome Felder, who was paralyzed with polio as a child and reinvented himself as a blues singer named Doc Pomus before emerging as one of the most important songwriters of the early rock ’n’ roll era.
Conceived and produced by his daughter, Sharyn, the film chronicles Pomus’s life with music through rare archival imagery and interviews with such collaborators and friends as Dr. John, Ben E. King, Joan Osborne, Dion, Leiber and Stoller, and B.B. King. He wrote 1,000 songs, among them “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment,” “A Teenager in Love,” and “Viva Las Vegas.” Passages from Pomus’s private journals — he died in 1991 — are read by Lou Reed, who was a close friend.
Ms. Felder, a longtime Springs resident, is a photographer as well as a first-time filmmaker and has honored her father’s life and music by producing “Till the Night Is Gone,” a tribute album with performances by Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Rosanne Cash, Mr. Reed, Dr. John, and others. “A.K.A. Doc Pomus” will be followed by a discussion between Ms. Felder and Ms. Elmiger.
Mr. Pennebaker, who lives in Sag Harbor, is one of the pioneers of cinema verité filmmaking. His body of work earned him a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. With his colleague Richard Leacock he developed one of the first fully portable 16-millimeter synchronized camera and sound recording systems, which revolutionized filmmaking by making possible the immediate style of shooting so popular today.
Shot in 1953, “Daybreak Express” accompanies its hectic ride on the Third Avenue El with a recording of Duke Ellington’s song of the same name. First shown at the 1970 New York Film Festival, “Company” documents the 181/2-hour recording session for the original cast album of Stephen Sondheim’s“Company.” The film includes Elaine Stritch’s legendary rendition of “Ladies Who Lunch.”
“Voices of Sarafina!” is a 1988 documentary about the anti-apartheid musical “Sarafina!” as performed by a troupe of South African teenagers. Scenes of the play alternate with interviews with the performers, who share their own stories of oppression and deprivation during the years of apartheid. Mr. Noble, who lives in East Hampton, is an Academy Award-winning producer and director whose work is characterized by a sense of compassion and an eye for the telling moment.
Ms. Elmiger has worked with some of the most esteemed film directors and actors of the past 25 years. She edited three films for Alan Rudolph, including “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” and “Afterglow,” both produced by the legendary director Robert Altman, for whom she worked as second editor on “Short Cuts” and “Ready to Wear.”
She edited “Breakfast of Champions,” starring Bruce Willis and directed by Mr. Rudolph from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel of the same name, as well as three films directed by Stanley Tucci, including “Big Night.” She has served for seven years as an advisor to the Sundance Director’s Lab and is a regular guest lecturer at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.