Lost Bohemia - Tiburon International Film Festival

Documentary, USA Director: Josef Astor
Cast: Jeanne Beauvais, Robert X. Modica, Editta Sherman, Dr. Donald Shirley, John Turturro

For over 100 years, the most significant 20th century artists and performers have lived and worked in the 165 studios atop Carnegie Hall, including Marilyn Monroe, Isadora Duncan, Barnett Newman, Norman Mailer, Marlon Brando, and George Balanchine. In 2007, the Carnegie Hall Corporation began to systematically evict the artists (some in residence for over 60 years), destroy the studios, and convert the space into offices. Ironically, many of the elderly artists who were faced with eviction had been instrumental in saving Carnegie Hall when it was slated for demolition in 1960. Alarmed by the situation, photographer Josef Astor, a resident of the Carnegie Hall Studios for over 20 years, began to film his neighboring artists: ballet and drama instructors, dancers, singers, sculptors, painters, and writers. Over a period of eight years, first-time director Astor filmed several hundred hours of the remaining artist tenants as they fought to preserve the studios for future generations.