Al Maysles lives in Grey Gardens

Ok, he doesn't actually live in Grey Gardens, but check out these amazing photos of his beautiful home from The Selby. He and his wife have a rich collection from their many years of traveling.

From The Selby, on September 22, 2010

Albert and Gillian Maysles at Home in Harlem

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Terre Haute production of Grey Gardens the musical

I hadn't heard about this production until I saw this review! Glad to hear it's so glowing!

As the article states, the production runs one more weekend.

Note that the single comment to the article isn't glowing:

This is terrible. Why would you compliment this? It was a very mediocre production. It's sad when a high school can put on a better production. Sorry.

From Examiner.com, by Kyle Borcz, on January 24, 2011

CTTH's "Grey Gardens" is Spectacular

The Community Theatre of Terre Haute's current production of "Grey Gardens" is absolutely stunning. Based on the lives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' aunt and cousin, Edith Bouvier Beale and “Little Edie” Beale and the cult 1975 documentary of the same name, it tells the story of their fall from high society to living in reclusive squalor.

The lead role in this musical is challenging: the same actress plays both the mother, in Act One, and the daughter in middle age in Act Two.  Ashley Wolfe rises to the occasion admirably. As the mother, she's at times graceful, beautiful and hilarious but bitter. Edith’s lifestyle comes with a price—an oppressive, unloving spouse who forced her to give up her dreams. She selfishly sabotages her daughter's upcoming marriage to Joe Kennedy, JFK’s eldest brother.

Wolfe’s voice and acting is terrific and she carries the show well. As Little Edie in the second act, she turns in a great comic performance but still manages to tug at the heartstrings. The sympathy we feel towards the character, however, wouldn't be as strong without Ashley Chase’s beautiful and emotional performance as Little Edie, in the first act. Chase is an exceptional performer who is very natural on stage, and has a gorgeous voice. A highlight for her is the heartbreaking “Daddy’s Girl.” Chase hits all the right notes as she can sense her happiness and future slipping from her grasp, but never lets it become maudlin.

Whitney Kos is hilarious as Edith, aged 79, in Act Two, but still has as firm a hold over her daughter as ever. Logan Sawtelle makes a fine Joe Kennedy with his charming voice and smile. Mitchell Hurricane Smith plays Edith’s father with just the right amount of comedy. Also of note in the first act is Josh Hoffman as Edith’s confidante, George Gould Strong, who also offers some great comic relief. But even he abandons Edith when she goes too far, leaving only the stoic butler, Brooks, played pitch perfect by Steven Fivecoat, to look after her. Rounding out the cast are Mary-Katherine Bedwell and Justine Gibson who have beautiful singing voices that exceed their youth.

Director Tina Hoopingarner and Costume Designer Peggy Apgar score points for evoking the film perfectly in Act Two, particularly with the costumes and use of the magnifying glass.

The CTTH’s production runs one more weekend, visit http://www.ctth.org/ for more information. Beauty, wealth and social stature may fade with age, but this production should live on in people’s memories for years to come.

And check out this video of a rehearsal:

From YouTube, by ThreadHound, on January 16, 2011

Grey Gardens rehearsal

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Little Edie's fashion influence continues: Turbans are hot!

Thanks so much for Mary Ellen for sending this in!

From Fashion Etc, by Erin Donnelly, on January 17, 2011

Spring 2011’s Turban Trend

As you plot your Spring 2011 accessory purchases, don’t leave out one crucial element for the season: the turban.

Yes, the runways were rife with Arabian Nights-inspired head wraps, which also enjoyed a sartorial heyday back in the ’40s and ’70s. Combine that with the recent turban-studded campaigns for Giorgio Armani and Prada, plus the backing of celebrities like Salma Hayek—who wore one to Stella McCartney’s spring fashion show—and resistance appears futile.

But where to begin? The desert headwear proved surprisingly wearable given the vast interpretations seen on the catwalk, which ranged from bulbous and bright to sleek and sophisticated.

Armani’s rounded black and navy toppers had the feel of bowler hats, albeit ones wrapped in head scarves that created a side ponytail of sorts; paired with matching pantsuits and slinky gowns, the look was enigmatic and elegant, with just a touch of eccentric.

On the minimalist front, the Vena Cava gals opted for relatively effortless coral and navy turbans that revealed the crowns of the models’ heads. Milly by Michelle Smith took it one step further (or back, as it may be) with her wearable, vintage-style headbands that begged to be worn with a fun printed sundress or high-waist shorts.

Going the bolder route, Andrew Gn resurrected the ’70s-era Bianca Jagger look with his forehead-obscuring helmets in shades of peacock green, purple, and chocolate brown.

But perhaps the quirkiest of the bunch belonged to Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, whose billowing, blindingly bright turbans—paired with neon bikinis and a dress made of balloons—ran the gamut from a post-shower towel style to a knotted, Marge Simpson–rivaling number affixed to a giant heart.

And don’t be surprised if two reigning fashion icons start working the trend. First Lady Michelle Obama’s favored designer Jason Wu delivered simple, softly wrapped cobalt and black turbans, while Issa, the label of choice for royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton, upped the ante with her tropical, towering piles of fabric in Technicolor hues.

Now, who’s ready to rock the casbah?

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The brilliant Tina Fey does Drew Barrymore as Little Edie on 30 Rock?!

She's actually quite delightful! And this video is enough to officially label Tina Fey as yet another celebrity fan of Grey Gardens!

From NY Mag, by Willa Paskin, on January 21, 2011

So How Good Is Tina Fey’s Grey Gardens Impression?

Edith "Little Edie" Beale, one of the subjects of the Maysles brothers 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, has one of the more distinctive accents ever recorded. On last night's episode of 30 Rock, Tina Fey took her best shot at an imitation, having Liz Lemon conduct an entire press conference in Little Edie's voice—or, to be more precise, the voice of "Drew Barrymore's impression of that crazy lady." (Barrymore played Edie in HBO's recent Grey Gardens, an adaption of the documentary.) Liz didn't utter any of Little Edie's most famous quips ("This is the best outfit for the day," etc.), but otherwise really went for it. How did she compare to the real thing?

Here's Liz holding a press conference to donate $5 million to "a high school for drama, the arts, and feelings," in full Grey Gardens mode:

And a quip in the same voice from earlier in the episode:

Here's Barrymore's impression of Edie Beale, from HBO's Grey Gardens:

And here's the real deal:

Not so bad! Now let's see Fey try to do Sarah Palin doing Little Edie.

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Review of the Cicero, IL performance of Grey Gardens the musical

Grey Gardens the musical is playing in Cicero, IL, and here's a review of it!

From A Stage to Perform on, by Steven D, on January 16, 2011

Theater Review: Grey Gardens at JPAC!

Family binds never really break do they? We usually find ourselves running away from our families on some levels but in the end we always to return home again in one way or another. That is the horror that Little Edie Bouvier feels in the musical “Grey Gardens” which opened on the 14th at the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center just outside the Chicago city limits at Morton College in Cicero.

“Grey Gardens” is a harder show to pull off then it looks because the jump in time between the two acts always seems to confuse the audience. I didn't think JPAC quite solved that issue but all the other productions I've seen haven't been able to either.

I thought overall they did a good job with with a difficult show, that had some great moments and some really questionable ones.

The show starts with the older Beales fighting with each other but the problem is you can only see one of them Edith Beale and then moves back to the past. I think this left the audience a little confused and the pacing in this production really needs to be picked up as it felt like the actors weren't sure of their lines or how to maintain their strong new England accents.

We're then invited to performance from a younger Edith Beale played by Mary Nigohosian in her living rool accompanied by her her accompanist and trusted friend George Gould Strong played with Addison DeWitt charm by Austin Cook. Edith has a tendency to always put on performance of her singing no matter where ever she might be or how uncomfortable it might make her daughter Little Edie played by Jill Sesso.

Saddled with an unfortunate wig which I think was the problem others had Ms. Sesso sang the role Little Edie better then I've heard it sung before. It seemed like she was belting the music with a youthful strength whereas the others who I've seen sang it usually sing it in more of a soprano voice to match the Edie of the second act. I don't know if belting it was the right thing to do but it did make the music that Little Edie has in the first act sound better then I've heard it sound. I thought she played the anger she had at her mother extremely well but didn't show the mental illness that would start slowly creeping into the character.

In the second act Mary Hobein was a touching Edith with a strong soprano who you could see the ravages of time and Grey Gardens starting to take it's toll on her mental state however, I thought she had without a doubt one of the worst wigs and hats on that I've ever seen on stage. It looked like she was playing dress up at some suburban costume shop.

The Ensemble was a mixed bag filled with some good performances from Gary Saipe and Steve Perkins in a very small role as their servant Brooks Jr./Sr. to some like Charles Lane Cowen who kind of stood around lacking any charm that you would expect Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. to have and his double turn as Jerry the handyman felt like a walk on role but again bad hair.

In any production of “Grey Garden's” it can rise and fall on the woman playing Edith the mother in the first Act and then in the second Act switching roles to play the daughter Little Edie (see how this can confuse audiences.) At JPAC these roles are played by Mary Nigohosian who posses a strong soprano voice though while lacking the elegant woman of the house she's playing in the first act she makes up for it with a campy turn of Little Edie that pulls at your heart strings in the second act. I thought her “Will You” and “Around the World” was lovely and well acted but was slightly disappointed by her “Another Winter in a Summer Town.”

This has always been more a character type of musical with some fascinating though off putting types of characters and I think the director worked on those aspects well however, much like the Beales, he left everything else in this production to the cats.

GREY GARDENS is directed by Micheal A. Kott with music direction by Adam Gustafson, Choreography by Sarah Bright, Scenic Design by Michael Nedza, Costume Design by Jennifer Ring and Lighting Design by Dante Orfei. Music direction is by Adam Gustafson who will lead an 8-piece live orchestra.

GREY GARDENS opens January 14th at 7:30pm and plays Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30pm through January 29th with 3pm matinées on Sunday January 16th and Sunday January 23th. Tickets are $17, $15 (senior citizens) and $10 (18 and younger), and are available on-line at www.jpactheatre.com, or by calling JPAC’s box-office at 708-656-1800.

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Interview with Al Maysles, who speaks tonight at IFC Center

There's an interesting interview with Al below, and if there are questions you want to ask Al yourself, visit IFC Center tonight!

From All Media NY, by David Guzman, on January 17, 2011

Interview: Maysles' Memories of "Grey Gardens" at IFC Center

Before people began lining up for documentaries about penguins, fast-food supersizing and Al Gore, Albert and David Maysles made movies about things that audiences thought they already knew everything about. While the occupation of door-to-door salesman didn’t seem all that interesting in the ‘60s, their “Salesman” documentary found that the job came with more baggage than the fancy Bibles their subjects lugged around and peddled to churchgoers. A fatal encounter between a man and a member of the Hells Angels during the Rolling Stones’ concert at Altamont stunned many a hippie in 1969, but it’s hard to get a sense of why things went so wrong so fast until you see the whole thing yourself in “Gimme Shelter,” one of the most legendary concert films of all time. The Maysles are as famous for it as the Stones are.

Of course, for as much as they achieved with those films, it’s their 1975 cult classic “Grey Gardens” that many cinephiles remember most fondly. Though it stands among their greatest works, the Maysles’ take on a middle-aged woman and her elderly mother (who came from the same bloodline as Jacqueline Onassis) sharing a run-down mansion with fleas and raccoons is so unusual that it gives you a new appreciation of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction. It’s only right, then, that it’d get into this year’s “Stranger than Fiction” series at IFC Center, along with lots of other oddball documentaries.

Albert, now 84, will be in attendance during a screening this Wednesday for a discussion about “Grey Gardens.” (His younger brother, David, died in 1987 after a stroke.) If you’re clueless on what to ask him, see if this gives you any ideas.

AllMediaNY: Between Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and Christopher Guest’s comedies, mockumentaries have started to become more common. Since “Grey Gardens” is something of a comedy, does the mockumentary subgenre owe a debt to it?

Albert Maysles: I find it kind of offensive to mention even the word “mockumentary” [in connection] to “Grey Gardens,” because it’s not in any way a mocking of these two women. It’s an attempt to be an authentic, sympathetic understanding of love for these two women and their relationship. There wasn’t anything in our purpose to do them an injustice.

AllMediaNY: A couple of years ago, you put together “The Beales of Grey Gardens,” a sequel made up of outtakes from the original. Seeing as all that footage stayed out of the public eye for so many years, what inspired you to turn them into a movie all of a sudden?

AM: This is something we’ve been doing with several of our films. We made a half-hour film of Muhammad Ali preparing to fight... Recently, 30 years later, we took that footage, expanded it into an hour. There’s a film that we made of Orson Welles. At this moment it’s only 13 minutes long, but we hope to make it at least half an hour, maybe even an hour. With “Gimme Shelter,” we just came out with another film of that film called “Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!” We went back to our footage that was shot by us at Madison Square Garden, found enough extra material there to make a whole extra film.

AllMediaNY: “Grey Gardens” was supposed to be about Jacqueline Onasis and Lee Radziwell.

AM: Originally, Lee asked us to make a film of her childhood in the Hamptons, and we began making that film. One day, Lee happened to get a call from young Edie Beale asking Lee to help out because the Board of Health was after Edie and her mother, so we accompanied her to Grey Gardens and met the two women, and decided several months later to just on and make a whole film of our own.

AllMediaNY: Did you get any feedback from them once you changed the focus of the movie?

AM: I’d heard from other people that Lee likes the film very, very much. Just by chance, when we finished the film and we were showing it at the Paris Theatre, my brother happened to meet up with Jackie at some airport and asked her if she was going to see the film, and she said, “I might sneak in.” That was kind of an interesting kind of answer; I don’t know if she ever saw it.

AllMediaNY: In 2006, The New Yorker profiled Jerry Torre, the handyman who made the Beales’ mansion one of his haunts. It reported that you’d reunited that year, but there isn’t any mention of how the meeting went. How did you get along after filming him so long ago?

AM: Just as the two women loved the film very much, he liked it enormously. I suppose without even knowing him that well, by just representing him well in the film, we were already good friends. Every once in a while, I get a call from him and we get together. He had just made a film about himself at Grey Gardens, and I saw it the other day and it’s very good. I forget the title, but it’s a very good film.

AllMediaNY: There seems to have been a rapport between you and the Beales. Were you afraid of that camaraderie affecting the film’s objectivity?

AM: I think that when you love somebody, if it’s a genuine love, then it’s one that’s connected with understanding and fairness and truthfulness. I think they’re all of a kind—these words, I think, are all consistent with one another. It’s not the kind of objectivity where we have some cold rendition of what we’ve witnessed. It’s a loving understanding. Love doesn’t have to be prejudicial, so there’s no prejudice—totally authentic. You can call that objective; it’s also subjective in that it’s an artistic rendition, which is totally consistent with the truth. We have no problem about objectivity.

AllMediaNY: A review of “Grey Gardens” that the San Francisco Chronicle ran speculated that you might’ve exploited its subjects. Do you think it’s normal for viewers to feel that way?

AM: I think that there’s so much exploitation in the press with not enough affection given to the people that are being reported upon, that people expect that if it’s an odd couple, as these two women were, that by itself, anybody [being reported] on is going to be exploited, because they’re so strange to us more so-called normal people, but I don’t see any exploitation whatsoever [in this film]. It’s true—it’s rare that a film explores that deeply, but getting that [deep] doesn’t mean that we’re making these two women any more vulnerable or we’re exploiting them. So much of the public—and critics, too—have come to think that if you really get inside the heart of somebody, then you’re going to hurt them. Certainly that wasn’t true with “Grey Gardens.”... I’ve had problems with The New York Times: There’s a review that’s extremely negative, making it look as though it was some kind of exploitation of two women who were too crazy to be filmed, stuff like that. One of the sentences went like this: “Why are they showing all this flabby flesh?” In other words, if somebody—a woman—is more than 35 years of age, then you’re exploiting them. People of older age shouldn’t be represented because they’re going to be hurt, all this crazy stuff. When Edie read that article, she wrote a beautiful response to it, but they never published it because they said [she was] a schizophrenic.

AllMediaNY: There’s an entry on the Internet Movie Database for “Gimme Shelter” that says the editing makes the fatal stabbing look as if it happened at a different time than it did. If that’s true, what made you want to alter those events?

AM: It’s not true—we didn’t alter any events. I think it was my brother with a cameraman that actually was able to see and film the killing. I think if it was any other decent person, if he were able to stop the killing, he would have—that would’ve taken precedence over filming it—but he was in a truck some distance [away], and by the time the thing took place, he could never have gotten to it in time. As you see in the film, the people in the circle around these three—the young woman, Meredith Hunter and the Hells Angels [member]—they were pretty helpless to start with.

AllMediaNY: That same source says an unknown George Lucas was a cameraman for “Gimme Shelter,” although none of what he shot got into the movie.

AM: It did.

AllMediaNY: Oh?

AM: I had understood that he was having problems with the camera that was rented just the day before, so that some of his footage didn’t get recorded properly. That’s what I had understood, and maybe that’s where this idea that none of his footage got in [came from], but I do know that the very last scene in the film of the people arriving or departing—that’s his shot. At least that’s one of his contributions, and a very good one.

[Editor’s note: When the Chicago Tribune interviewed Maysles about Altamont 20 years later, the resulting piece quoted him as saying, “None of the stuff he shot turned out at all,” referring to Lucas. IMDb claims Maysles told the same story in 1999 at the University of California, Los Angeles.]

AllMediaNY: Was there anything you observed about him that’s relevant to our image of him now?

AM: I don’t know what the common image is of him—in fact, I didn’t really get to know him in that time. I was so busy filming wherever I was, and he was wherever he was. However, one thing that’s so interesting is that here, in this building, we have what we call the Maysles Institute, and we show documentaries exclusively and we teach kids how to make their own movies, and he has contributed a big sum of money to help to make that happen. When I think of him, I think of him as a skillful filmmaker, but also as a very decent guy.

AllMediaNY: People have been watching “Grey Gardens” on video for years. Would seeing it in a theater add to the experience?

AM: Like so many others, I think that the theater experience is a much stronger one. It’s a big screen and you’re with other people, and I think that helps to get that much further into the film.

AllMediaNY: Well, that’s everything.

AM: Anything else that comes to mind?

AllMediaNY: Is there anything more you’d like to say?

AM: One often wonders, “What do these two women think of the film?” When we showed [them] the film—and they were the first ones to see it when we finished it, we brought it to Grey Gardens with a projector—after the projection, Edie got up and in a very loud voice shouted, “The Maysles have created a classic.” She loved the film, and I understood from her, two years later, when she was with her mother during those last moments of her mother’s life, she turned to her mother and asked if there was something more she might want to say. Her mother said, “There’s nothing more to say—it’s all in the film.”

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Comedian Patton Oswalt says Grey Gardens contains one of his favorite movie moments

Who knew? Grey Gardens has many, many celebrity fans!

From Listal, on January 4, 2011

Patton Oswalt's 100 Favorite Movie Moments

64. Grey Gardens (1975)

Edie feeding the raccoons.

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Ashley's Grey Gardens collage

It's nice to see Grey Gardens inspiring so many artisans these days!

From etsy, by Ashley, on December 29, 2010

Grey Gardens Collage

This collage is taken from a movie still from the documentary "Grey Gardens"

8x11

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Grey Gardens the Musical hits Cicero, IL

Performances will be 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Jan. 14–29, and 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 16 and 23, at the Jedlicka Performing Arts Center.

From Lombard Spectator, by Renee Tomell, on January 10, 2011

‘Grey Gardens’ musical inhabited by colorful characters at Jedlicka Performing Arts Center in Cicero

Fascination with the tragic decline of Edith Bouvier Beale (Big Edie) and her daughter, Little Edie, aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, first inspired a mid-’70s documentary. Dialogue from that documentary was incorporated in the Tony Award-winning 2006 musical, which will be performed in Cicero this month. It stars Mary Nigohosian of Batavia, and Mary Hobein of Woodridge, who takes on the role of Big Edie in later life. Hobein talks about the musical “Grey Gardens,” which was the name of the family’s oceanfront estate in East Hampton, N.Y.

Explain the story.

These women are quite a psychological study. They were both New York debutantes (and) quite wealthy. Big Edie always wanted... to be an opera singer, but the high society women of those times were not supposed to go on stage. Her father (and husband) thoroughly disapproved. She was frustrated in the main thing that she wanted to do. (Then) her husband... left her. (When) Big Edie continued (her lavish) lifestyle... her father... cut her off except for a small trust. Little Edie... attempted a stage career, but she was a flop. Her mother pressured her into moving back home.

What happened to the house?

(They) couldn’t keep the property up. They had countless cats as pets. Since they weren’t taking care of matters, the raccoons moved in too.

What is your character like?

Big Edie is portrayed as wanting to be center stage all the time. She is deserted by all the men in her life. The only (one) she can get to stick by her is her daughter. (She supposedly interfered) with her daughters’ romances so that her daughter wouldn’t leave her. In our play, she’s portrayed as being terrified of being alone; that’s why she hangs onto Edie so hard. Their relationship is really dysfunctional. My character is pretty nasty; she really manipulates Little Edie. They were very reclusive. (Yet,) they open up to these (documentary) filmmakers. We play directly to the audience, as if they were the filmmakers (who are) not really mentioned.

The first act captures life at the estate in its 1941 hey-day, and the second picks up in 1973, when neighbors report shockingly deplorable living conditions.

My reaction to Little Edie (in the documentary) was (she was) nuttier than a fruit cake. (She said,) ‘It’s hard to draw the line between the past and the present.’ She told lots of tall tales. She and her mother have their delusions of grandeur.

What do you like about taking on Big Edie?

My own daughter will appreciate me more. I love (portraying) outrageous characters. She’s totally different from any role I’ve ever played.

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Delightfully kitschy Grey Gardens-inspired photographs by woody1969, yes, with Barbie dolls!

Who doesn't love some Grey Gardens kitsch? This is especially well done!

Nice to see so many Little Edie Barbie dolls these days!

From Flickr, by woody1969, on December 30, 2010

Grey Gardens

From Flickr, by woody1969, on December 30, 2010

Grey Gardens

From Flickr, by woody1969, on December 30, 2010

Grey Gardens

From Flickr, by woody1969, on December 30, 2010

Grey Gardens

Did you ever want a Little Edie Barbie doll? Here's your chance!

This is also a great idea for those of you with Barbie dolls who have developed alopecia!

From etsy, by Robert Sondey, on January 3, 2011

Little Edie Beale of Grey Gardens

This tribute to the late, great "Little" Edie Beale started out with an old Barbie. She developed Alopecia and stitched up an outfit to wear while she feeds the raccoons in the attic. First, she covered her head with a sweater and fastened it with an heirloom pin. Her hand-sewn costume is very similar to the revolutionary costume but she wears a short-sleeved v-neck in this scene. The skirt is done up to her specifications as she stated in the film "Grey Gardens" when she says:

"I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today".

She holds both Purina Cat Chow and Wonder bread to feed the roaming creatures, including the raccoon behind her. Edie is on a pedestal stand decorated with sky blue Swarovski crystals. Her signature white heels and black stockings are worn under the costume. She is one-of-a-kind and will not be repeated. This was the first attempt at Edie and she acted as the prototype. She is also the only one using Barbie.

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Grey Gardens documentary honored with Cinema Eye Legacy Award

Congratulations!

From Cinema Eye Honors, on January 5, 201

Grey Gardens to Receive 2011 Cinema Eye Legacy Award

Filmmakers Albert Maysles, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke to Accept on Behalf of the Film

The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking announced today that this year’s Legacy Award will be presented to the landmark 1975 documentary, Grey Gardens. Filmmakers Albert Maysles, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke will accept the award on behalf of the film and the collaborative team that created one of the most enduring and influential documentaries ever made.

The award will be presented on January 18, 2011 at the 4th Annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony to be held at the newly re-opened Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York. The event will be broadcast on the Documentary Channel on Sunday, January 30, 2011.

"Grey Gardens stands as a testament to the collaborative nature of filmmaking," Cinema Eye Honors Co-Chair AJ Schnack said. "It endures not only on the basis of great characters and superb storytelling, but also on the creative choices of its makers, including the decision, somewhat risky at the time, to include the subjects’ interactions with Al and David Maysles in the film itself."

"There are some things about Grey Gardens that I think every documentary filmmaker would hope for–the fulfilling collaboration between producers, cinematographer, sound-person, editors, and subjects all being so pleased with the film," said co-director Albert Maysles. "When Mrs. Beale saw the film she said, ‘This is something everyone should do. There’s nothing more to say; it’s all in the film.’ We all aim for that kind of happiness. Just as Big Edie and Little Edie so appreciated Grey Gardens, we too appreciate the film being honored with this year’s Legacy Award 2011 from Cinema Eye. It means a lot to all of us."

This is the second year that Cinema Eye will present a Legacy Award, intended to honor classic films that embody the Cinema Eye mission: excellence in creative and artistic achievements in nonfiction films and celebrating the entire creative team—directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, composers and graphic designers. For the first time, a collaborative team will accept the award on behalf of the Legacy film, reaffirming Cinema Eye’s mission to celebrate the creative contributions of the entire production team. Cinema Eye is the only US or international organization to present annual awards for documentary in the fields of cinematography, original score and graphic design and it is the only organization, aside from the guilds, that recognizes outstanding direction, production and editing. Last year’s Legacy Award went to Ross McElwee’s SHERMAN’S MARCH.

Cinema Eye will present awards in 13 categories at this year’s event, including two new awards—one for Nonfiction Short Filmmaking and the new Heterodox Award which salutes narrative films that blur the lines between fiction and nonfiction.

About Cinema Eye Honors

The Cinema Eye Honors were launched in late 2007 to recognize exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film. Cinema Eye’s mission is to advocate for, recognize and promote the highest commitment to rigor and artistry in the nonfiction field. The Honors are held annually in January in New York City. Co-chairs for the 2011 Cinema Eye Honors are filmmakers Esther Robinson (A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory) and AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain about A Son). The producer for Cinema Eye is Nathan Truesdell. Sean Farnel, Documentary Programmer for the Hot Docs Film Festival is the Chair of the Cinema Eye Nominations Committee and Andrea Meditch, Exectutive Producer of Man on Wire and Grizzly Man, is the Chair of the Cinema Eye Advisory Board. For more information about Cinema Eye, including previous nominees and winners, photos and video, visit http://www.cinemaeyehonors.com

For more information about Cinema Eye, visit the website at http://www.cinemaeyehonors.com or email AJ Schnack at ajschnack@cinemaeyehonors.com.

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Artist/Designer/Stylist Joseph Turvey uses Grey Gardens as inspriation for menswear

This work is delightful! Who wouldn't want to be transformed into one of his Grey Gardens Boys?

From Francois se pas, Flashe' no do, by Joseph Turvey, on December 2, 2010

Design Development.

Here are some images from my portfolio. I have taken inspiration from Grey Gardens...if you haven't seen the documentary then you are seriously missing out!! I am going to the RANDOM magazine party tonight so i will be blogging about the event tomorrow. I am also styling a photoshoot for photographer Christopher Agius Burke tomorrow... First time as being a stylist. Should be fun right?

From Francois se pas, Flashe' no do, by Joseph Turvey, on October 2010

Sneak Peek.

So i have had my first project from LCF. These are some of the images from my sketchbook. I am looking at Grey Gardens. A buddy of mine looked at Grey Gardens for her final collection (It kicked ASS) I just want her to know that im looking at GG from a completely different prospective... I am looking at fleas,moths, bugs, wood, death and the general dirty lives of GG. So dont hate me please :D I just LOVE the Edies. Oh if you haven't watched the documentary then you are seriously missing out. Its amazing. Possibly the best thing i have ever watched! FACT.

A Personal note to Emily... Feel free to use Margret Rutherford for your next project haha xxx