CineMontage

Q3 2021

Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1397791

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 52 of 59

JAMES HARRINGTON FILM TECHNICIAN (FEBRUARY 8, 1945 - JUNE 10, 2021) 53 YEARS A MEMBER JERROLD LUDWIG ON CALL EDITOR (JUNE 18, 1941 - JUNE 5, 2021) 54 YEARS A MEMBER MICHAEL PETRICH COLORIST (NOVEMBER 25, 1960 - MAY 28, 2021) 32 YEARS A MEMBER WENDY QUICK ON CALL EDITOR (MARCH 14, 1954 - MAY 24, 2021) 23 YEARS A MEMBER EDWARD WEYER FILM TECHNICIAN (APRIL 6, 1947 – JUNE 2, 2021) 51 YEARS A MEMBER T H E G U I L D ' S M E M O R I A L R O L L C A L L 53 F A L L Q 3 I S S U E I N M E M O R I A M It had already been a long road to filmmaking for Ginsberg: A graduate of Columbia University, where he majored in literature, Ginsberg was hired as an apprentice editor at NBC News. "They were establishing a documentary unit along the lines of Leacock, Pennebaker, and Maysles," Ginsberg told the website Screen Slate. "I was an apprentice on a kid's show in that unit, and the editor started giving me more and more work to do. He saw that I was very capable. He said, well, I'm going to treat you as an assistant not as an apprentice." G i n s b e rg b e ga n w r i t i n g o r i g i n a l screenplays, several of which were op- tioned. "I used to use the library in the Metropolitan Museum to go in and write, because there'd be people around, but you couldn't talk," he told Screen Slate. "It comforted me, having company, in a manner of speaking." Then came "Coming Apart," which, while never destined to become a popular hit, left an impression on those who saw it, including director Jim McBride, whose o w n f i l m , " D av i d H o l z m a n's D i a r y " (1967), was an influence on Ginsberg. " I w e n t t o s e e i t i n o n e o f t h o s e screening rooms on Broadway," McBride told CineMontage, remembering his first viewing of "Coming Apart." "I didn't know anything about it, and I can't re- member how I was invited, but I found myself sitting a couple of rows behind Bob Dylan, and I was so impressed, so excited to be in his presence, and so jeal- ous that he would come to see this movie, while probably not knowing anything about mine, that I was barely able to focus on the film itself." Ginsberg managed to write and di- rect another independent feature, "The Werewolf of Washington" (1973): The political satire starred Dean Stockwell as a press secretary at the White House who moonlights as a werewolf. "There are so many scripts he wrote that never got produced," said his widow Nina Ginsberg, a painter whom Ginsberg married in 1983. "We moved at one point to California, but, of course, he was too unusual for LA." Although "Coming Apart" and "The Werewolf of Washington" remained his only features for many years, Ginsberg worked steadily as a picture editor, especially on documentaries. Among many other projects, Ginsberg edited "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones" ( 1 9 9 0 ), a p o r t ra i t o f m o d e l C h r i s t y Turlington, "Catwalk" (1995), and five documentaries for director Lee Grant, including "Down and Out in America" (1986) and "Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light" (2000). "It came so naturally — he was so hap- py when he was editing," Nina Ginsberg said. "He was just in his element." After becoming reacquainted with Ginsberg, McBride hired him to edit his made-for-television films "Pronto" (1997) and "Meat Loaf: To Hell and Back" (2000). "Milton was a brilliant editor and fun to be locked up in a room with for a couple of months," McBride said. Said Nina Ginsberg: "His thing was to work long enough, make the money editing, and then take time off to do the writing." In fact, in the last decades of his life, Ginsberg resumed his work as a director, making a series of innovative self-pro- duced films, including "The Mirror of Noir," a rigorous examination of the de- velopment of film noir; and "Kron: Along the Avenue of Time," a contemplative study of the concept of time. "Long after he couldn't find financing, he persisted in making his own films, at home, on his computer, with found footage and stuff he shot with his phone," McBride said. "And they were clever and touching. So I was jealous of him for that, too." Ginsberg, who received a diagnosis o f n o n - H o d g k i n's l y m p h o m a i n t h e mid-1970s, never let go of his creative spirit. Kino Lorber will soon release new- ly restored versions of his classic films, "Coming Apart" and "The Werewolf of Washington." "He always had a project going," Nina Ginsberg said. "The saddest thing for me was he just bought a new camera. He wanted to make one more film in his life. As one friend of his said, 'If I know Mil- ton, he probably had another film after that film.'" In addition to Nina Ginsberg, the film- maker is survived by his brother, picture editor Arthur Ginsberg. ■

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of CineMontage - Q3 2021