Jerry Barrish

Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders

Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Rembrandt Laughing

Jon Jost

Jon A. English, Barbara Hammes

This film is a portrait of the passage of one year in the lives of some San Francisco friends, circa 1988 (before the dot.coming of the city), a slow marijuana hazed story which drifts like the fabled fog, encompassing the quirks and habits of a generation that made the city theirs, if only for a while. Very obliquely Rembrandt Laughing sketches the time and place, encompassing the AIDS epidemic, the casual sexual revolution, the debris of '68 lingering in the air. A quiet, very San Francisco comedy of life among a small group of friends. Rembrandt Laughing was improvised over the period of about a month by Jost and his friends, mostly acting non-professionals.

Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish

William Farley

Jerry Barrish

Jerry Ross Barrish sees the beauty in—and creates the unexpected out of—discarded materials. The son of hard-working Jewish immigrants with crime-family connections, Barrish worked for 50 years as a bail bondsman, much of it for radical protesters. He stumbled into acclaim as a filmmaker, earning the Museum of Modern Art’s prestigious New Director distinction and winning major European awards along the way. Then one day, inspiration struck as he picked up plastic trash on a beach, leading him to launch a whole new career as a sculptor. Though acclaimed by curators, he long went virtually unnoticed in the commercial-art realm. But at age 75, the unassuming Barrish may finally be on the verge of success, as William Farley’s engaging documentary goes to show. Seeing the playfulness of his pieces, you’ll understand why: with artificial materials, he has managed to capture real life. -Denver Film Society

Dan's Motel

Jerry Barrish

George Berg, Jim Bowyer

Anthological film centering on the quirky denizens of a seedy residence motel.

Recent Sorrows

Jerry Barrish

Recent Sorrows begins with the simultaneous shattering of two men’s love affairs — one straight, the other gay. Tim has walked out on Katherine after finding her in bed with a younger man. Victor, possessive and longing for commitment, has been thrown out by his older lover, Neal. Both Tim and Vic seek solace in a café, where Vic overhears Tim confiding in a friend about his breakup with Katherine. When Tim leaves, desperate and a little drunk, Vic follows him home. Though they are strangers, he manages to talk his way into Tim’s apartment. Once inside, Vic claims to be a recruiter for the devil, willing to return Katherine in exchange for Tim’s soul. Angered, Tim suspects this is just a tasteless prank and demands that he leave. But what appears to be a “prank” leads to murder.