I’d like to get the word out about the book I’m doing on movies made in Greater Boston. It’s tentatively called “Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond.” Commonwealth Editions, a Beverly-based publisher of New England books, is putting it out in the spring.
The book is divided into two sections. The first consists of about 80 movies getting “full” entries—big Hollywood movies that shot here extensively, indies made here that had national distribution, lesser-known homegrown movies and the more influential documentaries. I’m calling the other section (which includes 150 movies at last count) “Brief Visits, Day Trips & the Rest.” Those are Hollywood movies that shot here for shorter periods, movies made further away from the city and those that aren’t necessarily strong enough to merit a full entry. There is also going to be an introduction that will offer a short history of moviemaking in Boston, sidebars in which prominent local figures will pick their three favorite Boston movies and, at the end, a trivia quiz.
People often ask me what constitutes a “Boston movie.” I’m following a “boots on the ground” rule; if a movie uses only establishing shots of Boston, and then cuts to somewhere in New York or Toronto or wherever when it shows us main characters, a la “Legally Blonde,” the “Out of Towners” remake and so many others, then it doesn’t count. But if a movie gets some lead actors here at real locations, then it’s in. “Mystery Street,” a good Hollywood thriller from 1950 is, as far as I can tell, the first dramatic feature to shoot widely in the city. (The documentaries are a tricky category, as our area has many influential documentary directors who don’t necessarily make movies with a local focus. But I’m including films such as Ross McElwee’s “Sherman’s March” and Lucia Small’s “My Father the Genius” because they’re made by members of the local film community and their impact bolsters everyone in that community.)
As I research the topic more, rewatch movies I saw upon their original release and watch some for the first time, more and more the book is turning into something in which I hope famous movies like “The Departed,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Mystic River” will draw people in so they can discover lesser known movies such as Jan Egleson’s Boston trilogy (“Billy in the Lowlands,” “The Dark End of the Street,” “The Little Sister”) and “The Dozens” (forgotten film that won a Grand Prize from the 4th U.S. Film and Video Festival—a little thing now known as Sundance). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a really interesting cluster of low-budget movies featuring blue-collar stories and mostly non-professional talent. Hardly anyone knows about these movies. It’s also a little shocking to learn how many local movies have not made it to DVD (or even VHS) releases—those last four as well as other movies such as “The North End,” the amazing documentary “Girltalk,” Joan Micklin Silver’s “Between the Lines” or the best movie made in Boston, “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.”
On the other hand, although the Boston indie scene really crashed and burned around 2000, the digital era has upped the sheer number of local movies made. Hardly any of them has been seen in great numbers, but I’ve tracked down movies like “Little Erin Merryweather,” “Everyone’s Got One,” “Divine Intervention” and “Pony Trouble.” If you’ve made one and haven’t heard from me, get in touch at
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. I’m in the last stages of writing it, so don’t hesitate.
I not only hope the book will spark some attention in the pre-digital underseen Boston movies, I also hope to be able to do some promotional revivals of them at local theaters when the book comes out. Then people will be able to do more than just read about them.
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