Nothing But a Man | Robert M. Young

hi I'm Ross Litman co-curator of the American neorealism series and welcome to tonight's screening of Shirley Clark's the cool world and Michael rers nothing but a man I'm very pleased to announce that uh very unexpectedly we are going to be having a special guest after the first film for those of you who don't know him Robert Young the cinematographer for nothing but a man as well as the co-writer and co-producer is in the audience with us he's 95 Robert would you mind raising your hand he's going to be joining my co-curator Paul Malcolm in a conversation that will be taking place we're going to have a a short break after the Shirley Clark film and then they will come up for Q&A and then we'll watch nothing but a man and if you have not seen nothing but a man this this is a truly extraordinary work and Robert Young has just had such an illustrious career including of course nothing but a man but also many other works uh a lesser known one but uh quite interesting is a a film that a tele play that he did called JT which UCL also preserved but some of you will of course know him as the Director of alam brista and of Ballad of gorio Cortez and many other works so it should be a really it's walking film history tonight sure and he's a friend of Shirley Clark yeah thank you so much and we're going to look forward to hearing more more stories from you uh very shortly um also I'm very pleased to announce that we now more or less have confirmation that for tomorrow night's screen of killer of sheep and bless the little hearts we are going to have Charles brnette in person for a Q&A tomorrow night uh so please come to that and then coming up uh next week I'm just going to announce a few of the screenings we're going to be having UCLA's oh the killer of sheep is of course in the restored uh UCLA 35 MIM prints Bo yes is blessed All Hearts as well as the Exiles on Thursday in a beautiful restoration and then the Academy's beautiful 35 millimeter print of the Savage eye that same night on Friday we'll be having the restored print of John cetti's shadows as well as Lionel rison's on the bowy and uh then for those of you seeking escape from Super Bowl Sunday uh we're going to be looking uh having a heavy look at drug addiction in uh a double feature of seriously these are wonderful films really intense films if you didn't get depressed enough at last night's screening of Wanda in the visitors definitely come out on Super Bowl Sunday for Dusty and sweets McGee by Floyd mutrix and Jerry shot B's panic and needle Park so it's a really exciting program that we've got coming up and that's all just in the next week um the cool world is Shirley Clark's second feature for her followup to the connection which was originally based on a stage play Clark again looked to the theater the cool world was first a novel by Warren Miller and then a stage play by Miller and Robert rosson which played in Philadelphia and then Broadways Eugene O'Neal theater in 1960 now the days when anything remotely like that could play on Broadway are long gone but thankfully the film remains if the connection was in part a response to cinema ver the cool world is very much Clark's dive into neorealist techniques filmed in the streets with actual gang members it has a grittiness that was quite different from the connection Clark's partner Carl Lee appears in the film and also helped closely in the making the great Jazz score is by Mal Waldren with the disy gpie ensemble it also represents the first filmwork of the Great Frederick wisman who produced four years before his directorial debut in tiut fys us uh uh sorry Berkeley scholar and historian Albert Johnson called the cool world the best film ever made about American Negro life in Harlem and almost prophetic in its implications the print we'll see tonight was restored by the Library of Congress as was the print of nothing but a man and uh anyway that's all I have to tell you tonight because I want to just get right into our wonderful program so thank you very much oh thank you very much my wife is here Lily I married a young woman because I'm 95 so anyway way forgive me I'm I'm speaking right now because I was affected by the film I also was a I was a friend of I was close with Shirley and and before she shot anything uh we had just been making documentaries and actually one of my partners was a cousin to Shirley and and infect I'm not saying infected sir please I'm not I had nothing to do with this but I'm saying that we were affected at that period of of the kind of films that we were making and U and affected by the Italian films and I just uh also never wanted everything to tell everybody what you what it is that's why I was so affected hard to me well I also mentioned this that I had a forgive me talking about myself I hate not to do this but I can't help it that I had a stroke around five years ago and I was like dead and I came back myself and I'm just now finishing I've written three other scripts and but I'm I'm also affected tremendously by this and I'm I'm trying to that is the the way I'm going to try to shoot the same thing because I've made another film of any of you saw it called alista about a Mexican coming to the United States but I'm not I'm Paul is very generous person and he should stop me any time and also my wife I'm never gonna do that please go ahead no I I but that's a really great uh what's one of the things you just mentioned and seeing the cruel world and it's in the cruel world well one of the things that you had mentioned in seeing the cruel world again just now and what connects the two films is both films were made about African-American communities by white directors but you just metion but you talked about you you are not a fan of films made by Outsiders it was it was part of your philosophy and your working with RoR was to try and and uh be get to know to to to become embedded or deeply sort of connected to this community before you shot the film can can you talk a little bit about how that philosophy played into the shooting of nothing but a man okay very much also um maybe just in one second of talking about that my partners as Mike RoR who's a very smart wonderful guy and uh we made this together uh but we had different connections I mean and different experiences obviously because I'm he's about about three four years younger than mine and uh uh so he was a during the during the 30s in Germany uh he' left and there was a place of a they called it the trains that bring out children so so would not get killed and take he went to England in the 30s and uh and then he had school there and forgive me I'm talking in such a way that it's affected so much to see this uh this film uh because I think I think it's brilliant and it's so different to be able to do something that jump into something and put the situations that you have the idea underneath and be able to put yourself so you bring it an experience and that's what I'm trying to do is always not to yes I write things but it has to be uh experien it so the fact I started making documentaries and jumping around if you can understand me and at that time uh uh my father was a cameraman and so this is a he he wanted to make his own films and my dad made it into finally an Aber laboratory because he didn't make enough money to live my dad was a was a wonderful person open and so I I had a camera when I was a kid little you know and then you wind them up and that's what I started shooting and so I was affected by by dad and and the the world and also my family came from a theatrical kind of thing uh my my uncle was a a singer wrote music uh Joe Young a lot of famous songs and so all of this has affect you because because and so anyway I started shooting even I my my dad talked me to go once me to be a chemical engineer because he had a made a laboratory and uh and so I was I was 15 when I was chosen to go to MIT and I wait for a year so I'm 16 years old it actually brings me back right now because I was the end of my get graduated that they asked me to make a speech at the end of the of the of the of the the audience and the kids and I was at I had a c they told me to stay and I tell the story but I never could write it or think about it and I stood in front of here like this in front of the couple hundred thousand people and then I couldn't say word and I finally walked away so that's probably the way I feel right now U I'm full of of things that I'm that I'm that I've experienced so but I should bring it back other words I jump all over the place my wife is looking at me I'm sure and and I'll try to make this not too far and you could stop any time but the one of the things that I started making things and when I was so I literatures I mean I love stories and good writer leing I mean so I so even a kid um I was a very young kid reading and thought about things so so I went after I went up to go at 6 and I was to go MIT and I didn't wasn't good for me and after the wall started a year and a half I I said I'm going to be with the live in the world and I'm not I have so important things are happening big things that I have to be a part of it so I went to the Navy and I went to the police Pacific during the war and I became an observer with a DI with films and all kinds of stuff like that but but I didn't like the violence that I've seen and I've seen a lot of things because I've been to Wars and so it's hard to believe that I'm still 95 I don't understand it um but but but I move on to make films and uh so I left after the that period I went to I went to Harvard lucky they I went for three years and was thought about my a lot of things and so I uh but during the War uh when I was in in New Guinea I was affected very much by a place were the the not of people who were living right around us and I became friends with a little boy only about 12 years old his name was Jo johans and it was there was a German priest who was teaching children and so I became a lot of interested with her but around my group was a lot of them southern people and a lot of people who didn't like this little boy Johannes his name was who would would affect me and at the same time at the same time and it's about our comp our country because at that point in the Navy the the black people were working the mess with the people there was no one officer they were just working for other people but not able to get the recognition of who they really were so I used to sometimes friends with these guys black guys who wanted to they would love to take pictures of me themselves rather next I was in b b Pomers and uh and so uh I would get ice cream and stuff and I get to know these guys and I saw that their lives and and the and I started writing my own stories about with a with a with a a Prejudice that's affected me anyway so I'm jump I'm gonna Joe forward no it's okay that's fascinating because I me I knew about Michael's Michael romer's sort of experience um as an imigra from World War II from Europe but I hadn't heard more about your experien as World War II um and how both of those different experiences that you had with the world that was going on when you and Michael met at Harvard yes we met how did you start how did you recognizeing each other a possible collaborator well Mike was a very different than me obviously fortunately he does he's smarter than me but he uh uh we and during while while Harvard this is an just after the war uh that that he he written made a film uh uh that was u a comedy and I was and became actually on Life Magazine as the best film of the we it was really the joke in a way the writer of Life of Mag magazine and but uh uh but it was it was an interesting film and it was very powerful I'm not powerful but it was connection with the with the open open and at Harvard at Cambridge and and anyway uh so uh sometimes I have stops because I had this stroke stroke thing but um so I came back to I was one of the cameraman to make that and that's how I became friends with with Mike and Mike went the direction to make a documentary films I did the same thing but not separately but we kept in touch that about it and then I made a lot of uh I moved about into living people I lived in Eskimos one of the last ones that the group that that that in in in the Arctic I lived at 60 below zero one winner and and fortunately I got re some recognition on some of these kind of things so so then uh and I lived in a lot of places I could like you will think you won't believe it for me but I've been very fortunately and I never get killed I've almost died a lot of times but but I've never I've been very fortunately anyway uh I should tell you that so so there was a a thing that this is ironic now forgive me I'm saying some things that actually deeper than much that I have to say but experiences that you find about what's going on right now with Trump and all the stuff this is all connected that's why I'm a filmmaker that's when I want to make films but it has to be Big Ideas not just make some little thing that's not of Val and I thought these little things that I just seen now which affected me so much is where the big things that you understand the way these little people who right in front of you the camera is close and you see the what the life is really in and that's what I find this earlier I went for example I was I saw a film that the the in Florida a place called Mir Maran Marine Studios and they they had big place to big big animals and all that stuff like that and I was tremendously interested but I saw that they they wanted to make films about it and I saw the they would take P the pictures in front of a little with a little you know Place how do you say a a CL a how do you say a just a few people this big by the with glass and inside oh yeah like a tank at the okay so they would make it with a blackground you see it so it's only go so far and I said I went there and I said I want to make make these films in the sea but not in a little tank that's the word a tank and I said I want to be involved in something bigger that means something and so anyway so that's I'm built a town behind them it's 25 ft behind them and so the world could not be seen clearly okay and that is the things that affect you on all of these things and that is the film that you just watch now he will very close to people and yet inside is something much bigger and when I lived in six five years making a films about The Sea and I find inside the sea I would close but the same time you could see that I found out because you have to understand things that What's called the the different temperature temperature is the different of the different an animals are in a different place right and go the thing that's happening them is the is the feeling and then finally you bring it all of the you don't even see it because then all of a sudden it hits of the of the of the rif the sea and then it makes something happen right and that is the way you have ideas of see things that are close and you get to understand something and then you really understand that something is much bigger about the things who affected you and that's one of the most extraordinary things about nothing but a man because one of the things that makes it NE realist in my mind is the way we're seeing the story of a single individual um Duff and Josie individuals and their struggle to just start a life together but in their individual lives we see very subtly very powerfully a whole social and economic history right that has been I mean Ivan's there's his future I'm not want to give anything away but we see his future and his past figured in his F in his family structure that it each one suggests this bigger larger social cultural and economic history that has been pounding down on him for Generations literally for Generations right that's exactly what I'm trying to do and that's why you have to go something to understand something closely and and and and the life of people without telling them who they are and did that so we have a few more minutes but so um did a lot of that finding the big picture and the little picture emerg from that those three months of research you did with Michael in the South before that's how he did that yeah okay just quickly I'll try to if I if I if you don't put up me um I I've been making a lot of documentaries trying to understand something but each time it all to be trying what is the bigger things going so the the the people in and um forgive me saying something it's ironic for example I got asked to go because they saw my work of documentaries and the head of of of NBC actually uh the people making up the the white white papers okay they they um God it affects me all this so to see this stuff but they they because there was a problem a comp and on TV called 64,000 remember that the game show 64 there was a there was a program that was very the people was affected people liked it but it was it was they where people would tell how much explain something or what was the and the people in the characters were were also chasen from the the producers from NBC they made was not true in other words these people were telling you what they were but some of it was not true and so so they had to make something really valuable to the to the audience to people to make something of public things that are important right okay to cover the fact that they made this bad thing now something about about us about the United States and about people myself people don't they cover up right now at Trump and all this going on and what is underneath is much deeper and the thing that's going that's happening who really are and these are affected way the same way when I want to the reef and I see which who's which Coral are and some at a different level than the other people really are that's what's happening right now in the world and so anyway so they chose me so they had to make something like white paper with something neat was important that was sort of the news that's what's happening right they tell you what is true and what is important so I so I go there but I was they chose me they saw some my films with the eskimos and all kinds of stuff like that so I said we we want you I said the first this they got the one one white paper already and so I said well I can't be swine I can't sign for NBC I want to work with you but I can't agree to do something without I can't believe with okay so this is the truth so I never made a contract or anything like this so so I made this so I they said well what do you want to do and I said well I've been a affected by this piece about people who black people and once it happened I've seen it people with my war and since and this is what I want to make a film about it and I know right now in Tennessee of the close to next to Mississippi and close to Memphis I said I want to go there because right there the black people are trying to vote for the primary first for white people M and this is n this is 1960 right so I said I want to that's where I want to go I'll try to make quickly so I go there they said okay we'll do it and actually paid me more money than I ever in my life and I didn't I never signed a contract though so because I said unless we make this film and then it's over then we I open if there's a new thing great but another I move on so anyway that's what had I went to miss to out to near Memphis to Tennessee and I see what's happened and this is I should stop now I think because it tell you to turn back with Mike and back to this one because when I go to Tennessee I find out that the people white black people are being not Farmers could not get their money from the tank and all of that kind of stuff because they're not going to nobody from a black person is going to go in a white PR primary at that time 1960 and they and the black people talk to me and they said you better not you cannot leave eat it go to a restaurant because you mity was going to put some as arsenic in your thing so I found this around this is was happening I was by myself and I want to go to see what's happening with these people so I go in this guy and his house in front of it the the the someone plowed in front so nobody could shoot at him because they shoot at them because when they were because of that so they said I have to be careful so I said the best thing I better do I'm going to go to the sheriff because I let them know who I am um and so I go there and I'll never forget this and this is really end my thing because I could go back and make you keep you from too long so I go to the sheriff knock in I come in and on the on the next to me as a guy leading back against the wall and a poster I'll never forget it it was orl or Earl Warren imp the same as now right and what do you say the word what's happening Trump oh impeach Impe impeach impeach ear War and this is the chief of War of the sub suburan yeah so and I look at the other guy is on desk and sitting down behind it with his boots or down on the on the on the on the on the on the desk and he's big forgive me it looked like it's like a from a movie you know he was sort of sitting there and he is his boots and and a gun was right there so I said I'm here here my my my name is Bob Young and I'm here for NBC because what's happening going happen in this Tennessee and I'd like him to film about this he leans back and he look at me so you're one of those liberal Jews who are here and I said yeah that's who I am and I want to start with you with the first interview well I think there's a lot of anyway not so long I stayed there for a number of days it was obviously I couldn't bring a crew M and so and I was somebody to challenged me I won't go through that part now they said if you're not if you're not if if still sun doesn't down you're finished and you'll never be here a big man and he never even looked at me because he saw me walking down out from the shack that I was coming with a my black friend he came down and that's what he said to me and he never looked at me and he said obviously I was I'm not GNA so I couldn't make a film there and that's why I said at that point I don't want to just be involved in violence for me I don't want to get killed and I don't want to tell about the most important is to tell stories like this and bring back understand something and do something about doing about it so I saw the sit down was around that way right and so I I said that's the place I'm going to go in in Nashville and I go there and that's where I Fe like John Lewis right he was 20 years old from the you I'm sure everybody must know John John Lewis and I became I wouldn't say great friends or anything like that but I made a film about that and it won the Peabody and all that kind of stuff like that so that made for me uh uh but I so I said to my head of of NBC because uh they said well you make these great films and all this forgive me if they said that but they said that and and they said but I said but I want to stay in the South because that's important for me he said well we did this now right and sit in right so after that I thought what am I going to do so I've seen these great people in the in the sit in people black people and white people too stood up to fight for things that mean something and then I said well I'll tell you what I could do I know you needed something that's going to be excess excitement for the film at the same time and is what's happening in the united sta in the world is 1920 I mean 1960 60 60 I said what's happening all over the world and in Africa is the freedom of freedom of countries were everybody taken from the Europeans from them I said well I want to go there and it turns that they said you can't go there and I said well I'm a Boy Scout I can go into the jungle and do anything so so anyway the Portuguese would not allow me to go to Angola we do need to I'm sorry we the end of this oh stop otherwise I totally don't mean to cut you off but we do have to move on but I no but I do want to I do want to say that the the the sense of but the sense of wanting to be somewhere and the sense of wanting to be somewhere and tell a story that last one tell this last thing then then go make a film the way I should write things and I make a film for the speaking to the mic speaking to the speaking to the oh speaking to the mic the mic oh the first thing I'll tell the last thing so you can finish so I made Angola and about with I involved all this another war and I see people get killed and all kinds of stuff so then I said well I want to play by my own way of things right making things and that's instead of making a film about on the one hand and the other hand and people telling me who they really are I want to find who they are so so I said well I just read a book by a man Angelie I I can't even say it right now but but the lives of people in in Sicily and I saw it these people were it was amazing just like this film that I've seen now which surely did which I was this better than my film this is marvelous anyway so I said I'm going to make a film like that and NBC they were not going to do it but but they allowed somebody got sick and I won't go into the whole story but I guys said I'm going to do it and I did it and I went in in cily and I lived with this place which is the mafia and everybody helping making my film and it was but at the end the NBC forgive me they were per very nice to me so I don't want to put them down in that way at all but I'm saying because there are great things that done but also they said it was too powerful just like this they said it's too powerful and for NBC and we can it and I said well I'm gone and and that was the end to make I made four of the eight of the First NBC white paper and then I said with and also bring Mike I was going when I get the opportunity to do that thing to make this in Sicily I had to I had to have somebody helping with me and and there was my friend Mike who was had working for making documentaries and that's we came to me and we said work together and he uh he almost didn't come and at the end he I said well he have to come and he came anyway and we made in this film with with Sicily and it was so and they said that it's too powerful and it's not going to be do this happening so that's what the end of this and I said well we're going to make our own film and we before and even Mike understand it but he was not there when they made s in but that was I said I we seen all of these beautiful people who wanted Freedom they they wanted to express themselves who they were and so that is when I said to uh Mike and I said let's make our own film and but we don't how we going to do that we don't have money we're not how going to make a film about the feature so I said well we're going to find it and my dad my and my my my and my my uh another and we I raised $15,000 and in Mike's house I mean M on a car his car and we drove from from there all the way down to to to uh New Orleans and that's while we wrote nothing but a man we experience with other people they packed it one people to the next one black people to another one to another and we talked and we thought about it and then finally we we wrote it but then how are we going to make the raise raise the money we couldn't get it from any Studios or anybody like that and so we gave of of uh we have now now we have nothing but a man we've written already right and it's so it it it we uh we raised some friends and that's how we made this and uh we we we raised fine 19 I mean no anyway I won't go into all of this it's too much but but the important is we made the film and uh and and we opened it and and played around and that's it and then I went from that I I'm not going to talk anything more about myself because that's what happen a lot of things happened after that but I think that's a good place for us to leave it yeah good thing I'm sorry if I talk too much no no I it was I'm sorry that we don't have I am very I'm sorry that we don't have more time because uh I'm sorry that we don't have more time because I feel like we we could we could we could hear more my hearing is also very bad but I I do want to diving up diving P I do want to let you know that um it's an incredible honor to have you here so thank you very much for coming out for us I appreciate [Applause] it