Ornette: Made in America (August 15th and 18th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[ ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA screens Saturday August 15th at 9:15 pm and Tuesday August 18th at 8:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I just figured out how Bill Cosby could engineer a career comeback. He could co-star in a bunch of Woody Allen movies. Maybe Roman Polanski could be the guest director. Thank you, you've been a great audience. Drive safely. Good night.

Oh, is there a movie review to do? Sorry, I've been so busy filling out job applications, I didn't notice. Just as I didn't notice this past June when "free jazz" composer and Afro-American arts icon Ornette Coleman died at 85 of a heart attack. I suppose since it wasn't a police shooting incident or anything sordid, it didn't make the headlines - except possibly in Fort Worth, Texas, where Coleman is a favorite local son.

The celebration of "Ornette Coleman Day," September 29, 1983 (I remember that day; I think I was filling out a job application. Nothing came of it) in Fort Worth kicks off ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA, the eccentric 1985 docu-meditation on Coleman that was also the final feature of maverick counter-culture filmmaker Shirley Clarke. 

A Great Day in Harlem (May 17th and 18th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM screens Saturday May 17th at 5:15 pm and Sunday May 18th at 4:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM is a nicely-tuned hour, sweet and nostalgic stuff for the eyes and even to viewers for whom jazz music holds minimal interest.

The 1994 short feature tells the story behind the famous Esquire Magazine photo of 1958, for which young shutterbug Art Kane put out a call to all the great jazz artists in New York City to gather for a single group portrait on a Harlem stoop at 10 a.m. in the morning on August 12. Kane was amazed when practically all of the notoriously night-owl musicians (it was said jazz players didn't know there were two ten o'clocks in one day) really did show up.

Hipsters (June 29th and 30th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[HIPSTERS screens Friday June 29th at 9:15 pm and Saturday June 30th at 6:50 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Ever had false-memory syndrome? I think I just did; probably the reason I'm not being called as a witness at the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse trial. Besides, as far as Jerry Sandusky goes, I say anyone named after an Ohio city is automatically guilty. Movie director Chris Columbus? Guilty as hell, whatever he did. Give him the maximum.

But I had false memory syndrome of actually having seen the 2008 Russian musical HIPSTERS a few years ago. Nothing definite, just a sense that I beheld and enjoyed the nostalgic tone and the cast and all that; it was a real crowd pleaser, and I smugly predicted it would go on to become Russia's DIRTY DANCING, and a worldwide smash. I probably told all of you to go buy those shares of stock in the studio or anything that Russian director Valery Todorovsky touched if you all wanted to get rich, like everyone else was getting in early 2008, remember?