Crobar: ‘The Making of a Mega Club’
I just recently watched the documetary film, Man on wire. My sister whom is a documentary film maker called me minutes after the screening in New York only to tell me, “you must travel where ever you have to travel in order to experience this film.” Naturally, being the younger brother I promised I would and never did.
The film moved me beyond words. To have a vision, a dream and purpose beyond rationality and sensability is something few people will admit to possess and accept to exist. In short, the films synopsis is as follows:
On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York’s twin towers, then the worlds tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: he had to find a way to bypass the WTCs security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done by night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan James Marshs documentary brings Petits extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as the artistic crime of the century.
I had a not so similar experience in my journey in creating crobar New York. Thou far from walking a wire 100 stories in the air, the wind up, the journey for me was my wire. My sister and her co-producers shot the making of a mega club which captures some of the compelling behind the scenes drama and dreams it took to accomplish such a monumental feat. Not just a nightclub design story, thou nightclub design and some of the dreams are aptly illustrated in the journey of a team.
‘Crobar, The making of a mega club’ follows the planning,construction and gala opening of New York’s hot, new megaclub. Part ‘Trading Spaces’ and ‘Studio 54, ‘ the video will feature interviews with nightclub designer Callin Fortis and Kenny Smith, co-owners of Crobar. Directed by Bill Marpet and produced by Cherie Fortis and Vicky Bugbee, the 70 plus hours of footage will be edited at B Productions into a feature length documentary and series.
What occurs to me, after watching Man on Wire, is one thing. There is a little of Philippe Petit in all of us. Just don’t look down. To view the film……