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MEN AT LUNCH
67 minutes, documentary, color, 2012

A film by Seán Ó Cualáín

Special Features • Five bonus shorts: The 1929 Crash • Rockefeller Center • Joe Woolhead on September 11, 2001 • The Inspiration of 'Lunch atop a Skyscraper' • Ric Burns on 'Lunch atop a Skyscraper'



New York City, 1932. The country is in the throes of the Great Depression, the previous decade's boom of Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants has led to unprecedented urban expansion, and in the midst of an unseasonably warm autumn, steelworkers risk life and limb building skyscrapers high above the streets of Manhattan.

In Men at Lunch, director Seán Ó Cualáín tells the story of "Lunch atop a Skyscraper," the iconic photograph taken during the construction of Rockefeller Center that depicts eleven workmen taking their lunch break while casually perched along a steel girder boots dangling 850 feet above the sidewalk, Central Park and the misty Manhattan skyline stretching out behind them.

For 80 years, the identity of the eleven men and the photographer that Immortalized them remained a mystery: their stories, lost in time, subsumed by the fame of the image itself. But then, at the start of the 21st century, the photograph finally began to give up some of its secrets. Part homage, part investigation, Men at Lunch is the sublime tale of an American icon, an unprecedented race to the sky and the immigrant workers that built New York.

“The documentary invites the viewer to meditate on that moment. 'Men at Lunch' solves some of the puzzle created during a New York autumn when Babe Ruth's Yankees were winning the World Series and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was winning the presidency.” - The New York Times

"Part detective story, part homage to the American immigrant experience and, ultimately, a tribute to the simple dignity of hard work, 'Men at Lunch' examines the mysteries behind one of the most recognizable images of the 20th century: eleven men casually perched atop a steel beam hundreds of feet above Manhattan.” - Time Magazine

"A fascinating journey. Ó Cualáín's photographic detective work is both evocative and eloquently effective.” - Screen Daily

"'Men at Lunch' is infectiously and unabashedly uplifting as it celebrates the American immigrant experience...placing those laborers and the products of their labor in a vividly evoked historical context.” - Variety

"A loving tribute to the famed 1932 'Lunch atop a Skyscraper' photograph that, according to image repository Corbis, remains the most valuable in the world. Shots of modern men rebuilding One World Trade Center stirringly evokes the majestic photo's continuing connection to the present.” - The Village Voice

"A stirring and inventive look into the mystery and origin of the famous 1932 photograph. Delicious!” - New York Daily News

UPC: 7-20229-91577-9 | Catalog #: FRF 915779D | SRP: $24.95 | Street Date: December 3

BUYING SEX
75 minutes, documentary, color, 2013

A film by Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason

Buying Sex looks at the contentious debate over pending reforms to Canadian prostitution laws, which are being challenged by both pro- and anti-prostitution forces, with no evident consensus about which way forward is either best or likely. Would decriminalizing prostitution free women to take more control over their activities, run legal brothels and manage their own procurement businesses without fear of punishment, or would it give male buyers and business owners even more power and opportunity to benefit from and possibly exploit the sale of sexual services?

Buying Sex brings forward the voices of sex workers, formerly prostituted women, policy-makers, lawyers and even the male buyers. All agree that they want to improve the workers' safety, but have polarized philosophies about how that can be best achieved. Respecting differences of ideology and opinion as Canada works its way toward an uneasy consensus, Buying Sex challenges us to question whether prostitution is the "oldest profession" or the "oldest oppression."

“'Buying Sex' brilliantly zeroes in on two radically different visions at the heart of these debates through the stories of those who have most at stake: the buyers and sellers of sex.” - HotDocs Film Festival

“ Meticulously made. Guaranteed no two people will walk out agreeing on the issue.” - NOW Magazine

“'Buying Sex' does what many films on the topic don't: it lets the women speak for themselves.” - Torontist

Packaged in a 100% Certified Green Forestry Practices Eco Pack

UPC: 7-20229-91579-3 | Catalog #: FRF 915793D | SRP: $24.95 | Street Date: December 3

SPEAK THE MUSIC: ROBERT MANN AND THE MYSTERIES OF CHAMBER MUSIC
58 minutes, documentary, b/w & color, 2013

A film by Allan Miller

Robert Mann has been a vital force in the world of music for more than seventy years. As founder and first violinist of the Julliard String Quartet, and as a soloist, composer, teacher, and conductor, Mann has brought a refreshing sense of adventure and discovery to chamber music performance, master classes, and orchestral performances worldwide.

In Speak the Music, the 93-year-old Mann shares personal anecdotes from his childhood and musical training, archival performance footage, candid interviews and glimpses into his private lessons with today s most promising violinists. A living legend, Robert Mann is in turn, funny, angry, tactful, persistent, and always searching for the most human expression he finds inside the music. Speak the Music pulls no punches: Mann describes the dark side of quartet life, including often intense differences with colleagues.

Featuring rare rehearsal and dazzling performance excerpts from Mann's 50 years with the Juillliard String Quartet, Speak the Music is at once an exciting insight into the art and personality of a monumental chamber musician, and the story of the growing importance of chamber music in the second half of the 20th century.

“If you wanted the Juilliard Quartet to play a Haydn quartet, you heard something...that made the music come alive...”
- Elliott Carter, Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer

“There are few authentic legends in any generation, in any endeavor. In our corner of the music world, Robert Mann is justly one of those legends.” - Leon Botstein, President of Bard College

“When I think about the Beethoven quartets, I think about Robert Mann...the drama - he was able to do it in such a successful way that it was totally contagious to the other players." - Itzhak Perlman, Violinist

Packaged in a 100% Certified Green Forestry Practices Eco Pack

UPC: 7-20229-91578-6 | Catalog #: FRF 915786D | SRP: $24.95 | Street Date: December 3

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