top of page
THE JOURNAL
A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER'S BLOG
NEW YORK CHARLOTTESVILLE VALENCIA
FEATURE ESSAY
The numbers do not fully absorb. As of this writing, 1,783 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. Among them, 46 have been completely erased. The Ministry of Culture counts 346 artists and 132 media workers dead. PEN Ukraine had already reached 102 cultural figures killed by the end of 2024, and the count has not stopped. These are not collateral casualties. They are the point.
Search
New York in 8mm — Past on Request
A one-minute Super 8mm assemblage of New York — and why analog grain does something to the viewer's psyche that no digital filter can replicate. A filmmaker's take on texture, time, and the bridge between past and present.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Jun 43 min read
Sayonara Mister Bristow: Not enough room in the Pantheon for all American composers. The paradox of Natural Selection and Memory.
I intended to make a biography. The working title was simply George Bristow, and the plan was straightforward: rescue a forgotten American composer from the obscurity into which history had carelessly dropped him, and let audiences discover what they had been missing.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Mar 284 min read
George Bristow Steps Out of the Shadows
Life and Music in the Age of George Frederick Bristow (2026) is a documentary exploring 19th-century American music and New York’s search for cultural identity. Through the life of composer George Frederick Bristow, the film examines opera, symphonic ambition, immigration, and canon formation, situating New York within a broader dialogue across the Americas. Available in feature and classroom editions.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Feb 233 min read
New York, as seen by William Hill in the 1840s
And then, in William Hill’s New York there are the specifics. My favorite: the Daguerreian Gallery of Illustrious Americans, located at 205 Broadway, already present in the city by the mid-1840s. Its inclusion is not incidental. It places this image at the threshold between older forms of representation and the emerging modern world of mechanical reproduction.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Dec 18, 20252 min read
Tiffany The Orientalist
On a February evening in 1913, New York’s bohemian elite gathered at Tiffany Studios for one of the most dazzling spectacles the city had ever seen. The New York Times reported breathlessly on the event, describing it as an “Egyptian fête” held in a “riot of color.”
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Sep 14, 20254 min read
In the beginning: Brooklyn
When the Bristows came to Brooklyn, not in pursuit of riches but perhaps something far more elusive: opportunity.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Jul 5, 20253 min read
Attilio Piccirilli at the MET
During last week's short visit to the MET I had the opportunity to recapture Fragilina, one of several idealized female nudes by Piccirilli.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Apr 22, 20241 min read
Omaggio Usa ai Piccirilli. Focus sul New York Times e un film-documentario
Tornano alla ribalta i fratelli scultori massesi che emigrarono negli States. Il regista Montes Bradley è al lavoro e sarà in città per...
Heritage Film Project
Oct 21, 20233 min read
Reviving the Forgotten Artistry of New York's Unsung Heroes: The Piccirilli Brothers
John Freeman Gill's recent New York Times article, "How Six Italian Brothers Shaped the Story of New York,” ...
Heritage Film Project
Oct 16, 20233 min read
The Piccirilli Workspaces
My quest for the documentary is driven by the need to find tangible traces of the Piccirilli family of sculptors, who migrated from...
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Aug 28, 20235 min read
The Bohemians
By the time The Minutemen was ready to be unveiled in the presence of Emerson and Ulysses Grant, then sitting president of the United...
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Feb 3, 20223 min read
On Location at St. Bartholomew's
If you ever walked down Park Avenue, north of Grand Central Station, in the early hours of the afternoon, you probably saw the reflection...
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Nov 23, 20211 min read
New York, 1911
This documentary, part of MoMA's extraordinary collection, was made by the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern as part of a series...
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Oct 7, 20211 min read
bottom of page