Drivers Wanted (2012) and McB (2012) at DOCNYC 2012

Director Joshua Weinstein,  cab company owner Stan and producer Jean Tsien

Wonderful hour long look at cab drivers in New York City, focusing on the crew that works out of a garage located in Long Island City directly across the East River from the UN.

Covering several months in the life of the taxi garage this film follows the lives of Eric, a Chinese immigrant who takes a job to help pay the bills after his regular job cuts his hour, Stan, the owner of the company and Spider, a now 93 year old man who until three months ago was still driving a cab a couple of days a week. Following the rhythms and cycles of the garage the film focuses itself on Eric as he wanders in one day to get a job driving. We then follow along  as he learns to make money as a driver and his family copes with his long hours. We also watch as Stan tries to get more drivers and Spider hangs out and dispenses wisdom.

This is a great film. Its good time with good people who open up their lives and make it clear how difficult it is to drive a cab. After a couple of  days of trying to work out a review the best thing I can say is that I bought the DVD from the directors girlfriend after the screening.

Speaking of which after the screening there was a Q&A with the directors, Stan and the wife and Children of Eric. As Q&As go it was one of the best ones I’ve attended with Josh Weinstein seizing control from the moderator and asking questions of everyone on stage with him. Somewhere early on when one of the kids was asked what he thought of himself on a movie screen and he said he looked big, I was hooked and pretty much stopped taking notes and went with it. Mr C recorded some it and it can be found here.

This is a super little film that is getting a week long run at the Rerun Theater in Brooklyn starting November 30th.



Eric's family with director Joshua Weinstein outside the IFC Center



Prior to Drivers Wanted the festival screened the 30 minute film McB about a public school in Brooklyn that staged Macbeth with a cast made up of 3rd through 5th graders. It’s a good little film that shows what it takes to get a production such as this done with kids when many adults thought were too young to handle the complexity of the play. As is made clear kids can handle much heavier subjects than most adults realize.  A solid film worth tracking down.

McB director Jenni Morello

 Mr C has posted his thoughts on Drivers Wanted over at Planet Chocko and they can be found here. All photos are through the good graces of Mr C as well.