Community Corner
Documentary Night: IF THESE KNISHES COULD TALK
Documentary Night
IF THESE KNISHES COULD TALK
Post-film Q&A with filmmaker Heather Quinlan
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Wednesday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Carte Blanche: FREE | Members: $6 | Students & Seniors: $8 | Nonmembers: $11
ABOUT THE FILM: It's tough to assess the value of a vowel or a diphthong, yet it's these intangible elements, along with a few dropped Rs and intrusive Gs, which make up one helluva great chapter of American history. The New York accent is as much a part of this country as those spacious skies and purple mountains majesty. It's the voice of the melting pot, a lingua franca that united immigrants from all over the world. IF THESE KNISHES COULD TALK tells the story of the New York accent: what it is, how it's evolved, and the love/hate relationship New Yorkers have with it. It features writer Pete Hamill, director Penny Marshall, attorney Alan Dershowitz and screenwriter James McBride, along with a cast of characters from the Throgs Neck to Canarsie. In between, it explores how the accent became the vibrant soundtrack of a charming, unforgiving and enduring city. The film will also reveal a few surprising facts, such as why there’s no such thing as a Brooklyn accent, and how there's a New York accent in sign language. The film and its director have been featured on the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, and WNBC-TV. The film has also been covered on BBC and BBC Scotland.
ABOUT HEATHER QUINLAN: The film is directed by Heather Quinlan, a New Yorker who's lived in all five boroughs and whose short film, "O BROOKLYN! MY BROOKLYN!" about Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" was called “charming ... an endearing way of making an old poem more relevant” by the New York Times. She also directed Dinner With Wise Guys, a Little Italy spin on IFC’s “Dinner For Five,” and videos for TLC, the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. She started IF THESE KNISHES COULD TALK as an homage to her father and grandparents, whose wonderful accents she missed hearing. The knish became a symbol for the film after she remembered it was a Jewish food introduced to her by her Irish father in the heavily Italian borough of Staten Island.
