Photos and interview by Stacie Joy
A restored slice of pre-gentrification East Village life is returning to the big screen this month.
Phil Hartman's "No Picnic" — a black-and-white, downtown-set neo-noir from 1986 — runs in a new 4K restoration for a week at the Film Forum starting on Friday.
Hartman wrote the script and directed; Doris Kornish produced; and Wim Wenders' company, Grey City, served as executive producers.
The film premiered at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival, where Peter Hutton won the Best Cinematography award.
"No Picnic" follows down-and-out jukebox operator Macabee Cohn (David Brisbin), who drifts through tenements, dive bars and derelict East Village streets in search of a mysterious woman in a striped dress.
The cast also includes Myoshin, Anne D'Agnillo and Luis Guzmán, with appearances by Steve Buscemi, Richard Hell and other downtown fixtures.
The film screened at Anthology Film Archives in 1990 but was largely unseen until a new restoration debuted earlier this year at MoMA's To Save and Project festival.
We caught up with Hartman, the co-founder of the Two Boots Pizza empire, to talk about the film, the era it captured, and what it's like to see it resurface nearly 40 years later.
Yes! Some of my fave places were already in danger of extinction, like the Orchidia, Hy and Lil's, Kiev Restaurant; plus El Bohio [CHARAS] — our home base — was already feeling threatened. New "hot spots" were starting to appear, but we always loved the places that were not hot, like Pete's Bar on East 5th, which no one but a few cops went to.
And I still mourn the loss of the hoop courts in the NW corner of Tompkins Square Park, where once upon a time, my friends and I whupped [Jim] Jarmusch, [Richard] Edson and [John] Lurie in 3-on-3!
Were you following any particular indie formula when you set out to make it?
David Brisbin in "No Picnic"
The standard formula for a low-budget indie is to pick an insular location, like a house ("Return of the Secaucus 7") or a bar ("Last Night at the Alamo"), and invite a group of actor friends to hang out for a few long weekends.
But "No Picnic" has 100-plus characters and 100-plus locations, because we didn't want to miss anyone or anything. That required not just an amazing cast and crew, but the buy-in of the community, who not only tolerated us running around with our 16mm camera but also actively participated, like the kids with the sparklers, the lady with her chihuahua, and the amazing meringue band at the street fair.
We were truly blessed to capture a time and place that deserve to be celebrated, not forgotten.
When you watch "No Picnic" now, what details of the neighborhood jump out most, the ones people today might not even notice?
Well, the "bones" of the neighborhood are intact — the five-story tenements with gorgeous cornices and window pediments so intricate you can't believe they were put on poor people's houses. I've also been noticing how important fire escapes are in "No Picnic" — reflecting how important they've always been in the East Village: a place to hang out when it's hot, to go visit your neighbors, to decorate with rocking horses or houseplants, and to hang a banner, whether it's "rent strike," "speculators beware!" or "Black Lives Matter!"
There's clearly a strong interest in the film — the MoMA screening sold out this past January. Why do you think this moment in the neighborhood is resonating today?
I think the bad old days of the East Village represent a time of authenticity and affordability, but let's not forget it was also dangerous and dirty, and you had to stop your toddler from picking up hypodermic needles in the park.
However, the creative energy was amazing — especially the music: seven or eight times in "No Picnic" characters break into song ... melodies seemed to be in the air back then!
Does the film feel like a time capsule to you, or something more immediate?
Well, some of the most colorful folks in the film are gone — Princess Pamela, Rafik, Santa Claus, Pete Rose; and some of the most iconic places are, too — Adam Purple's garden, St. Marks Cinema, CHARAS, Shea Stadium, etc. — all thankfully immortalized.
But I still love the East Village, no matter how much it's changed, because giants walked these streets: [Allen] Ginsberg, [George] Schneeman, [Ed] Sanders, [Jonas] Mekas, Lady Bunny, Hettie Jones ... and their spirit forever fills the air for me!
Check out the trailer below...
