By Bill Parry
Don Cato knows a quality filmmaker when he sees one. The co-founder of the Queens World Film Festival is one himself, having won a Silver Medal at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974.
That’s why Cato was excited last Friday when Frederick Wiseman screened his latest documentary “In Jackson Heights” before a crowded auditorium at PS 69 ahead of the film’s U.S. premiere at Film Forum in Manhattan Nov. 4.
“The man is a master. He’s curious and patient and I think that’s admirable,” Cato said. “He’s captured the essence of what Jackson Heights is now and there’s no narration. He allows the people to explain and that’s the beauty.”
The 85-year-old Wiseman has a “fly on the wall” style that he uses to great effect so the viewer sits in on a meeting of the gay seniors’ support group SAGE convening at the Jackson Heights Jewish Center. There are several visits to houses of worship, while a segment follows Colombian soccer fans during the World Cup. The film, shot over nine weeks in the summer of 2014, is a celebration of the neighborhood’s diversity, where 167 languages are spoken, according to Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who appears throughout.
“I have to tell you, I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved this film to death,” Dromm said. “I’ll be seeing it 10 more times in the next few weeks.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
