NIGHT WALTZ

The Music of Paul Bowles

Two years before his death in 1999, Paul Bowles welcomed first time filmmaker Owsley Brown into his life. Bowles was enthusiastic and supportive of Brown's idea to make a film about Bowles's relatively unknown life as a composer. They began working together to present Bowles's music in a manner which would allow the audience to experience it for themselves. Night Waltz is the happy result of Brown's long time fascination with the world famous expatriate writer.

More commonly known as the expatriate author of The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles actually first made his mark on the world as a composer. This documentary sets out to rediscover this forgotten master of 1930s American music. Shot in New York, Paris, and Tangiers, the film details his studies with Aaron Copland, and the time he missed a meeting with Sergei Prokofiev. Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles also features interviews with William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Bowles himself.

Title: Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles
Running Time: 77 Minutes
Status: Released
Country: United States
Genre: Documentary

Night Waltz The Music of Paul Bowles (1999) FILM REVIEW
- Elvis Mitchell, New York Times

A Tale Infused With Musical Grace
- Kevin Thomas, LA Times

Director Owsley Brown III | Producer Brown Burke Productions | Editor and Cinematographer (Paris and Oaxaca) Nathaniel Dorsky | Cinematographers (Tangier) David John Golia, Gene Salvatori | Cinematographer (New York) Rudy Burckhardt | Additional Times Square Neon Jerome Hiler | Associate Producer Cynthia K. Gimbel | Assistant Director Don Simandl | With Paul Bowles, Philip Ramey, Abdelouahaid Boulaich, Joseph A. McPhillips III, Karim Jihad Achouatte | Music Consultant Phillip Ramey | Field Audio Geoff Maxwell, Mark Noderer | On-Line Editor Ed Rudolph, Video Arts | Audio Post Production Steven Bravin, Robert Berke Sound | Telecine Supervisor Anne O'Toole | Colorist John Carlson | Additional Photography Courtesy of Paul Bowles, Rudy Burckhardt, Irene Herrmann, Phillip Ramey | Camera Assistants Barry Congrove, Suzanne Trucks | Production Managers Ali Bakkioui Elotmani, Don Simandl | Production Assistants Karim Achouatte, Emily Gordon, Kenneth Lisenbee, Clay Morton | Location Grip Truck ZAK Productions, Bennouna | Assistant to Producer Rita Wadghiri | Location Drivers Abdelhadi Atta, Ahmed Hamdan | Translator Victoire Reynal Brown | Transcriber Laurene Scalf | Motion Control Photography Six Foot Two | Camera Package Panavision Hollywood, Otto Nemenz International | Film Laboratories DuArt Film and Video, Monaco Film and Video, Forde Motion Picture Labs, Dorsky Hand Processing

Special Contributors

Nathaniel Dorsky, Editor and Cinematographer

Dorsky's documentary editorial credits include The Spirit of Crazy Horse, What Happened to Kerouac, and The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. Dorsky is also a noted avant-garde filmmaker in his own right. Besides editing Night Waltz he contributed the footage to accompany Bowels' music for the Paris and Oaxaca sequences.

Rudy Burckhardt, Cinematographer and Still Photographer

Burckhardt is one of America's original independent filmmakers. He has made over 100 films, all of which he shot and edited himself. Burckhardt's interest in Night Waltz resulted in his donating still photographs and three of his most noted films to accompany Paul Bowles's music in the New York City sequence: Up and Down the Waterfront (1946), The Climate of New York (1948), and Under the Brooklyn Bridge (1953).

Eos Orchestra

Eos was founded in 1995 when Artistic Director Jonathan Sheffer invited Paul Bowles to return to the U.S. for a festival of Bowles's then unknown music at Lincoln Center. The Eos Orchestra seeks to re-imagine the live music experience with a focus on re-discovery of important neglected works and composers and the stimulation visual presentation of its carefully curated concert programs.