Aug 16, 2005

The Overnight Man


This Tom Weinberg-produced short is a great half-hour documentary about newsman Joe Cummings, and his usual "beat" on the graveyard shift, collecting stories from the firemen and the police blotter, and occasionally stopping off to get his beloved chewing gum. We also get a lovely portrait of the man off-hours, with his (very camera shy) wife in a restaurant, and a candid look of Cummings at his AA meetings. This was made on the then-radical videotape technology of half-inch video, better known to you and I as VHS! As such, the washed out quality of the picture seems to add to its feel, and the shots of the desolate, snow-swept streets of Chicago are quite haunting. It's a keeper.

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