New Film: Kill The Irishman Recalls Cleveland In The 70's: Bomb City USA

A Hollywood fact is that what's scary, upsetting and horrible in real life, will probably make a great movie.

Two new movies, one a documentary bring back the life and times of Danny Greene. Cleveland Magazine has a long story and feature about them, giving lots of info and links about this period.

NYC, has changed so much since the 70's that films about this era of Son of Sam, The Westies, graffiti and Fort Apache seem nostalgic. For Cleveland, it's not quite that way, the grit and history is close to the surface.

"It is a strange moment in the history of Cleveland pride. Kill the Irishman proves that 1970s Cleveland's rakishly charming crooks and killers are as worthy of a gangster film as those in '20s Chicago and '40s Los Angeles.

In 1976, 37 bombs exploded in Cuyahoga County — and legend aside, Danny Greene and the Mayfield Road Mob were probably responsible for less than half of them. Add City Hall's default, industrial decline, the rise of the Cleveland joke and a cellar-dwelling sports team or two, and the '70s may have been Cleveland's low point, its gloomy, unrelenting era of gray despair. But just as locals celebrated surviving the Blizzard of '78, they celebrate outlasting the blizzard of bad news, the drought of default, the epidemic of dynamite. Hitting bottom forges character — and characters.

So, to see back in time to the real Danny Greene, we consulted people who knew him well, writers who've tackled his story before, and documents and footage from his lifetime. We also talked to the lead actor, director and co-producer of Kill the Irishman to hear how they aimed to capture Greene's essence. The story takes us back to an era when the city's ethnic neighborhoods produced fierce rivalries and Clevelanders watched their high school classmates grow up to be union leaders and judges, cops and gangsters, nodding warily toward one another over lunch at the Theatrical Grill."

Kill The Irishman


Danny Greene:The Rise & Fall of the Irishman Documentary

Another plug for Cluster on Friday, plus Doc Salon

Taking a moment to plug the Cluster opening at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Ton of excellent new work, some pieces are enormous stretches for the artists - Connie Cantor will be unveiling a 14-foot behemoth of a painting made with layered veils of tiny marks, for example. Additionally it will be interesting to consider the breadth of media in the show, and whether or not it comes together cohesively.

Also on Friday night, the quiet gathering of Pittsburgh documentary filmmakers and viewers happens again. Documentary Salon will be meeting at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in the mini-Melwood screening room on the second floor at 6:30. The group will be screening a 50-minute segment of Rebecca Einhorn's Mythopoeic Times. If past conversations are any indication of the future, considered discussion will follow, moderated by documentary filmmaker and teacher Will Zavala.

Throw Down Your Heart @ Melwood Screening Room Sept 18-20

Yup folks, even the Banjo has it's roots in Africa.

"Associated most often with folk, bluegrass and country music, many think of the banjo as a quintessentially American instrument. But in fact it is African in origin. Award winning documentary Throw Down Your Heart follows banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck as he travels through Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali in search of the little known roots of his instrument and cross-cultural musical collaborations. A multiple Grammy-winner for jazz, bluegrass and classical recordings, Fleck suddenly finds himself a wide-eyed novice as he encounters a dizzying array of African languages and cultural traditions. But his musical conversations with both talented amateurs and international stars such as n'goni lutenist Bassekou Kouyate and Malian diva Oumou Sangare are testaments to music's ability to connect people across superficial divides. Directed by emerging auteur (and Fleck's younger brother) Sascha Paladino, Throw Down Your Heart is an enthralling journey and a moving celebration of music and humanity."

You gotta figure that the music alone will make this worthwhile.


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Objectified@ Harris Theater

Thanks again to Bittersweet Harvest for the heads up on the opening of a documentary about the process of designing the stuff that makes up our daily existence from the maker of the cult favorite film about a typface, Helvetica at Pittsburgh Filmakers.

Consultants' free-form brainstorming leads from a bristle-replaceable toothbrush to every conceivable variation on dental care. A computer designer waxes poetic on the multifunctionality of a plastic keyboard grid. A car engineer likens automobile models to classical sculptures while, to another, they symbolize drivers' visions of themselves.

But the biggest sea change in the nature of design comes from ecology and accompanying problems of recycling and disposal. As the camera roves the streets of Hoboken, N.J., past rows of discarded appliances half-covered in snow, Hustwit's film shows how artistic, sentimental, environmental and commercial priorities struggle for pre-eminence amid concerns for planetary survival.

Objectified runs July 19th-23rd @ The Harris Theater, Downtown Pittsburgh