DVD
Lighting over Braddock and collected shorts : the films of Tony Buba.
Languages
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (Lightning over Braddock only).
Publication Information
[New York, NY] : Zeitgeist Films, [2020]
Physical Description
2 videodiscs (307 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
Not rated.
Summary
For five decades, Tony Buba has chronicled the industrial decline of his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, with bleakly disarming humor and a boldly self-reflexive style. Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films present a two-disc collection of his newly restored films starting with his 1970s shorts and working its way through his feature-length masterpiece Lightning over Braddock : a Rustbowl fantasy (1988) and on into his essential recent work. In Lightning over Braddock, Buba plays himself as a struggling director who tries to make a feature with narcissistic conman Sal, but never manages to leave Braddock, where factories keep closing despite the heroic efforts of local unions. With its mix of politically potent documentary portraiture and hilarious comic re-enactments, it's an uncatagorizable work of art that has had a vast, if underground, influence on the future of documentary, anticipating the work of everyone from Michael Moore to The Daily Show.
Notes
Title from container spine.
Originally produced as individual short films from 1972-2019.
Special feature: Lightning over Braddock audio commentary by director Tony Buba and film critic Nick Pinkerton.
Contents
- Lightning over Braddock Braddock chronicles I Braddock chronicles II Collected shorts