Peter Flynn is a documentary filmmaker and educator.
He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and teaches courses in media production and film history at Emerson College.
Peter was born in Dublin, Ireland and lives with his wife, son, and two cats in Boston, MA.
FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! explores the vanishing world of private film collecting—an obsessive, secretive, often illicit world of basement film vaults, piled high with forgotten reels, and inhabited by passionate cineastes devoted to the rescue and preservation of photochemical film.
Condemned as pirates and hounded by the FBI, film collectors have long lurked in the shadows. Yet their efforts have resulted in the survival of countless films that would otherwise have been lost to history. Archives and studios now look to private hands for missing titles and many collectors have begun restoring and releasing films themselves. As analog film fades from memory, the basement-dwellers and bootleggers of old are finally being given their due.
Hailed by critics as "intimate and artful," "stunningly beautiful," and "ferociously entertaining," FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! is a multi-award-winning tribute to the private film collector, a celebration of the fetishistic subculture of pre-video cinephilia, and a timely reminder of the glories of analog film.
Produced, Directed,
Edited & Photographed by
Peter Flynn
Runtime: 103 mins
Format: 16x9, Digital/DCP
Distributed by
BayView Entertainment
210 West Pkwy., Suite 7,
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444
Phone: 201-488-6110
"LONG LIVE FILM! is a ferociously entertaining, endearingly humorous, and ultimately poigant look at the underground world of private film collectors [that] ends on a beautifully unexpected note."
John Larkin, Films in Review
"Spectacular . . . a massive treat for cinephiles. A wave of nostalgia and wonder is felt in every scene."
Film Threat
"Powerful . . . a thoughtful commentary on life's richness--and it's inevitable impermanence."
Peg Aloi, The Arts Fuse
"A treat as well as a cautionary tale for film lovers everywhere."
The Portland Press Herald
"A terrific documentary and a lovely piece of storytelling."
Christopher Lloyd, Film Yap
"You can't miss it!"
The San Francisco Chronicle
"A beautifully structured documentary . . . intimate and artful . . . a must for all cineastes."
Laura & Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
A "funny and observant love letter to film collecting . . . immensely entertaining and wonderfully insightful."
The Independent
"Affectionate, funny, and eye-opening."
St. George News
“A fascinating, entertaining film that deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible . . . check it out film lovers--it's catnip for you all!”
At the Movies with Tim Sika
“FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! is worth the wait.”
Andrea Chase, Public Radio Exchange
"Stunningly beautiful . . . enough to make a grown man cry."
Matias Bombal's Hollywood, KAHI Radio
"Rarely does a documentary on a niche topic end up being so entertaining."
The Daily Cardinal
Winner!
Best Picture
2024 International Sound & Film Music Festival
Winner!
Best Feature Documentary
(2024 Desertscape Intl. Film Festival)
Winner!
Best Feature Documentary
(21st Annual Indy Film Fest)
Winner!
Best Feature Documentary
(29th Annual New Jersey International Film Festival)
with Special Citations for
Directing & Editing
Winner!
Audience Award
Favorite Feature Film
(20th Annual Southside Film Festival)
Chip Ordway and Bob Furmanek explore the impact of nitrate decomposition in this clip from FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM!
FILM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE FILM! is dedicated to the memory of Lou DiCrescenzo who recently passed away. In this scene from the documentary, Lou and his family look back on a life in film.
Helge Bernhardt
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT explores the history and craft of motion picture presentation through the lives and stories of the last generation of career projectionists. By turns humorous and melancholic, their candid reflections on life in the booth reveal a world that has largely gone unnoticed and is now at an end. The result is a loving tri
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT explores the history and craft of motion picture presentation through the lives and stories of the last generation of career projectionists. By turns humorous and melancholic, their candid reflections on life in the booth reveal a world that has largely gone unnoticed and is now at an end. The result is a loving tribute to the art and romance of the movies—and to the unseen people who brought the light to our screens.
"[4 stars] You may not go to a more thought-provoking funeral than the one held for the art of film projection in Peter Flynn's lovely documentary 'The Dying of the Light'...the film is an elegy to a century of watching movies and to the craftspeople who made it possible." Boston Globe
"An elegiac tribute to the artistry of film and to t
"[4 stars] You may not go to a more thought-provoking funeral than the one held for the art of film projection in Peter Flynn's lovely documentary 'The Dying of the Light'...the film is an elegy to a century of watching movies and to the craftspeople who made it possible." Boston Globe
"An elegiac tribute to the artistry of film and to the men and women who toiled 'behind the curtain' to bring that artistry to life every day in movie theaters around the world...a not-to-be-missed treasure of movie history."
Boston Herald
"[4 stars] [A] melancholic peek behind the curtain that's quickly-and all-too-quietly-closing on a profession. A tremendous gift for cinephiles who mourn the loss of the light."
The Improper Bostonian
The Dying of the Light had its world premiere at the 2015 DOC NYC Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the spring of 2016.
Projectionist Raber Umphenour explores the projection booth of The Victory Theatre in Holyoke, MA. From THE DYING OF THE LIGHT (2015, 95 mins) directed by Peter Flynn.
Projectionist Paul Bader dismantles the carbon arc projectors at the Northfield Drive-In. The Northfields Drive-In converted to digital in 2014. From THE DYING OF THE LIGHT (2015, 95 mins) directed by Peter Flynn.
The abandoned Victory Theatre in Holyoke, MA.
In the early 1910s, the New York based Kalem Film Company made history by sending its leading filmmakers--director Sidney Olcott and screenwriter/lead actress Gene Gauntier--to County Kerry, in Ireland. Known to the public as the "O'Kalems," Olcott and Gauntier produced a series of ground-breaking films--rebel dramas, folk romances, tale
In the early 1910s, the New York based Kalem Film Company made history by sending its leading filmmakers--director Sidney Olcott and screenwriter/lead actress Gene Gauntier--to County Kerry, in Ireland. Known to the public as the "O'Kalems," Olcott and Gauntier produced a series of ground-breaking films--rebel dramas, folk romances, tales of exile and emigration--celebrated for their authentic Irish settings and unrivaled in their use of scenery. They were the first fiction films to be made in Ireland and were among the first American films to be shot overseas.
BLAZING THE TRAIL tells the story of Olcott and Gaunter's adventures in Ireland: it recounts how they made films without electricity, using locals as actors; how they provoked the condemnation of a local priest and ran afoul of the British authorities. It tells the story of two of the cinema's earliest mavericks, of the people and culture they immortalized on film--and of the emerging Hollywood system that would ultimately eclipse them.
DIRECTOR; PETER FLYNN
PRODUCER: TONY TRACY
REVIEWS:
"first rate, inventive, fascinating"
LA Examiner
"Compulsive and compelling"
Alamo Enquirer
"Impressive and sophisticated"
Cineaste Magazine
"A delightful piece of work"
The Bioscope
BLAZING THE TRAIL (2011) had its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2011 and was aired on the Irish National Broadcaster RTE later that year. It was released as part of the two-disc DVD collection The O'Kalems released by the Irish Film Institute.
Making films in Ireland was a challenge for the O'Kalems, but the local hospitality more than made up for it.
Muckross Abbey was one of the many Killarney-based locations used by the Kalem Film Company.
INAUGURATION is an intense, on-the-ground account of the events surrounding the 2017 Presidential Inauguration culminating in the Women’s March on Washington. The film follows supporters and protestors of the 45th president through the streets of the US capitol, detailing the various confrontations, rallies, and marches taking place over
INAUGURATION is an intense, on-the-ground account of the events surrounding the 2017 Presidential Inauguration culminating in the Women’s March on Washington. The film follows supporters and protestors of the 45th president through the streets of the US capitol, detailing the various confrontations, rallies, and marches taking place over that weekend.
INAUGURATION captures the chaos and excitement of this historic moment, offering a vivid portrait of America in crisis and a bracing, often joyous, celebration of civil disobedience. In the words of Michael Moore: "Welcome to the shitshow!"
DIRECTOR: PETER FLYNN
PRODUCER: THOMAS FINN
The streets of Washington DC on the eve of Trump's Inauguration.
One of many charged scenes from the Women's March.
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