On The Bowery (1956) by Lionel Rogosin
Sunday, June 24, 1990, 8:00 pm
FORGOTTEN PEOPLE
The plight of the homeless has been the subject of independent filmmakers going back to the days of the Depression. On The Bowery (1956) by Lionel Rogosin, 65 minutes, depicts people of the Bowery, “who have reached a hideous sort of happiness achieved at best by gin and whisky, and at worst by a shared squeeze from a can of metal polish.” (Basil Wright) Howie (1978) by Chuck Hudina, 52 minutes, is a portrait of a 70-year old Bowery alcoholic and ex-sailor. “Howie neither romanticizes its subject nor regards it as a specimen for analysis, but emerges as an expression of caring and restitution of dignity.” (Elizabeth Cleere) Street of Forgotten Men (1935) submitted by Craig Baldwin, is a lost newsreel of society’s ‘rejects’.