Thursday, April 14, 2011

North Dixie Drive

I recently went and saw a documentary at the Neon movie theater. The neon is a small independently owned cinema that plays a lot of films that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. The theater is located at the corner of fifth and St. Claire and I'm sure that even if you've never seen a movie there you will recognize the place when you see it.
       The Neon is nice because the theaters are kind of small and you never really have a bad seat no matter where you are or how many other people are in attendance. Also, they serve alcohol, much to the delight of my older friends.
      This post isn't really about the theater so much as it will be about the documentary I saw there a few nights ago. The film is called North Dixie Drive. It is a documentary about the infamous street in Northridge. Strangely enough the film's director is not from the area and hails from New York. How he came to find out about the area or decided that it was worthy if making a film about I do not know.
      On to the movie itself though. The film has little narration and consists mostly of interviews with local workers. It is is a portrait of a once booming business area that  fallen on hard times and you can sense the desperation as you watch.  As someone who lives not far from the area, and who has known several people from Northridge, it is an interesting experience to see some of the places that are familiar to me shown on the big screen.
      You will also meet some very interesting characters in the movie from barbers and repo men, to strippers and mechanics, all of whom seem to be struggling to make ends meet these days. This is needless to say, not a happy film. It has kind of dark tone, and evoked a lot of sympathy from me for the inhabitants of the town. I would definitely recommend it though, not only if you are familiar with the area, but just to see a different side of life that some of you may not be familiar with.

5 comments:

  1. I like that you added the video trailer, and I like that you gave the reader a glimspe of the actual theatre.

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  2. The writing is effective, but I would like to suggest a little more flair in the writing. When you describe the Neon, I think you could have done it more eloquently and expressive... Over all, I good job at describing the movie. I like the video, it puts the movie in perspective.

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  3. Very interesting. You could've gone into discussing the North Dixie area in a little more depth, though. Also, I really like your background, but you may want to consider experimenting with some different font colors.. the text is just the teensiest bit hard to read. It doesn't stand out quite as well as I would like.

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  4. I have driven by Neon a number of times, but have never watched a movie. You are right, I haven't notice the movie, North Dixie. As you mentioned, it doesn't appear to promote Dayton. One comment, in your last blog, you used "me and my friend" or something like that twice. It should be "my friends and I" or 'my friends and me." That was one of my late grandmother's pet peeve.

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  5. I agree that the Neon is definitely overlooked by a lot of Dayton residents (Daytonians? Daytonites?) It's good to call attention to it.

    I like your background as well. It really fits the theme of the blog. Good choice.

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