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If you ever walked down Park Avenue, north of Grand Central Station, in the early hours of the afternoon, you probably saw the reflection of the sun illuminating the bas-relief’s panels at St. Bartholomew's. The church first open for service in 1835, in the corner of Lafayette and 3rd Street. In 1876 it was moved to Madison and 44th, a new building designed by the same architect of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The present location is its third. Perhaps the most accomplished, the most beautiful. For the bas-reliefs panels adorning the central doors and tympanum, Stanford White trusted Daniel Chester French who reached out to Andrew O'Connor who eventually became the primary sculptor for this project. In 1906, French wrote to Homer St. Gaudens saying that “the commission was given to me with the understanding that O’Connor was to do most of the work. I supervised him carefully at the start and for a number of months but finally the doors really became his work and I do not claim any great amount of credit for them.” I was not aware of the details, and thought the credit was all French. Documenting a sculptor on film has its delicate corners, this was certainly one. But it was French the one who brought me here, the one who reminded me of the beauty of St. Bart’s. I once saw Penelope walk pass the robust, yet delicate doors seeking solace. I dared not disturb the woman I loved, and waited across the street, facing East just as the faithful followers of the Prophet do when they hope for another day under the sun.

It was a good day in Richmond with David Dearinger. He did most of the talking about male and female figures in the sculptured work of Daniel Chester French. I didn’t know until then that the first “real” woman to have a statue dedicated in New York City was no other than Joan of Arc in 1915. In fact, it seems that only a handful of women, perhaps no more than six have been memorialized in marble or bronze in the city. Naturally this does not include the allegorical figures of Justice, Republic, Freedom, the Four Continents, Alma Matter and the glorify mythical beauties. But the fact that no statue was dedicated to an actual woman until 1915 and that it was dedicated to a French Catholic that empowered many of the attributes often depicting brave men and crusaders. The next one came about in 1984, it was dedicated to the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and I was there during the unveiling. So far, no American woman had been memorialized or recognized with a monument in New York. They will have to wait another ten years. First came Gertrude Stein (1992 – Bryant Park) and then Eleanor Roosevelt(1996 - Riverside Park). In 2008 that the city honored a Black woman with a memorial to Harriet Tubman, although she was placed in Harlem, at 122nd street. Interesting. However, since the conversation was supposed to be about Daniel Chester French, I continued to explore in that direction and asked David for his thoughts “The female Form Reveled”, an essay he had written in 2016 for an exhibit of French’s works at the Boston Atheneum. Invariably, we were soon to derail again. Talking about French is like herding cats, threads of arguments will always pull in different directions making the conversation more than entertaining and educational at the same time. The dialogue with David will resume, most likely in the first weeks in February. By then I will certainly have other pieces of puzzle on the timeline of this new adventure that we call Daniel Chester French, a documentary in progress. Daniel Chester French is a documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, produced with the support of Chesterwood, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Stockbridge, MA – Chesterwood, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announces a new documentary film that explores the life and work of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) by award-winning film maker Eduardo Montes-Bradley and the Heritage Film Project. Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor will serve as an educational tool, build a worldwide audience for French’s work, and introduce the public to Chesterwood, the summer home, studio and gardens of the sculptor from 1896 to 1931. The film is set to premiere on May 26th at 7:00 p.m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. Opening remarks will be presented by Michael Bobbitt, Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and a benefit dessert reception. Tickets will be available in March from www.mahaiwe.org MEMORIAL DAY EVENT On May 30th from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Chesterwood will celebrate the centennial of the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, French’s most iconic creation and one of the most visited memorials in the United States. A highlight of the historic studio at Chesterwood is French’s six-foot model of the seated Lincoln. Chesterwood encourages families to bring picnics and take part in family-friendly activities such as live music by the Berkshire Jazz Collective, a special Lincoln tour, and readings from the memorial dedication event 100 years ago, all at reduced admission. More information will be available in April at www.chesterwood.org ABOUT THE FILM Montes-Bradley is a writer, photographer and filmmaker, and a founding member of the Heritage Film Project, a production company located in Charlottesville, VA. Over the past thirty years he has produced and directed over fifty documentary films including film portraits of Rita Dove, Alice Parker, Julian Bond, Evita (Eva Peron), Monroe Hill, and Jorge Luis Borges. “When I was approached by Dan Preston and Michael Richman, editors of the Daniel Chester French papers, with the idea of making a documentary, I had only a vague idea of who he was. I was familiar with most of French’s work, but little did I know about the man behind the monuments,” remarked Montes-Bradley, “As with many sculptors, French’s name was living under the shadow of his accomplishments, many of which have had major historical implications.” Montes-Bradley will include interviews with several French scholars, including Michael Richman, the curator of the first major exhibition and catalogue of French’s work, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1976) and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, author of the recently published biography, Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French (Princeton Architectural Press 2019). The film will be the first-ever documentary to focus on French, including his formative years studying with May Alcott, his neighbor in Concord, MA; apprenticing with American sculptor Thomas Ball in Florence, Italy; establishing a studio in Greenwich Village and then finding his true creative home at Chesterwood in Stockbridge, MA where he built a new studio, home and gardens that he fondly referred to as “six months in heaven.” The film will look at the aesthetic and political significance of French’s hundreds of public sculptures, such as the Minute Man in Concord, MA, the John Harvard at Harvard University, the Alma Mater at Columbia University, the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the General George Washington on the Place d’Iléna in Paris, and the universally known seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C., one of the most significant temples to American democracy, a site for peaceful assembly in times of hope and despair. Filming locations are in Stockbridge, MA, Concord, MA, Washington D.C. and Florence, Italy. Diane Pearlman of the Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative is the local line producer in the Berkshires. The documentary will be entered into several independent film competitions, and after its official premiere it will be distributed through Kanopy, a video streaming service available the libraries and universities worldwide. ABOUT THE PANEL DISCUSSION Immediately following the film screening, Montes-Bradley will be joined by Lincoln scholar, Harold Holzer and American art specialist, Dr. Thayer Tolles, to discuss the film. Holzer is the author of Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French; and a leading authority of Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the civil war era. Dr. Tolles is the Marcia F. Vilcek Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she served as editor and co-author of a two-volume catalogue of the Museum’s historic American sculpture collection. FILM SUPPORTERS Significant support for the film to date has come from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Foundation, Jeannene Booher, Anita Heller and Elizabeth Pyle, Nancy Sheridan Kojima, Hank and Louise Leander, Hans and Kate Morris, Joel Rosenkranz | Conner-Rosenkranz LLC, Elsie Thompson, Terry and Jay Wise, and several friends of Chesterwood. For more information about the film or to become an underwriter, please contact Executive Director, Donna Hassler, at 413-298-2031 or dhassler@chesterwood.org ABOUT CHESTERWOOD Chesterwood, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 1969, is best known as the studio where Daniel Chester French modeled the seated figure of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., but he also had a passion and talent for garden and landscape design. While living at Chesterwood from May through October for over 30 years, French invited family and friends to spend time in his gardens and forest for inspiration and relaxation. He situated his home and studio to face the magnificent view of the north side of Monument Mountain, framing different aspects of the view from the studio piazza, the garden pergola and the porches of the main house. French also spent hours designing and working on his formal studio garden, with its lauded peony and hydrangea-tree allée, and created woodland trails that culminated in a cleared ledge with a view looking northeast to the October Mountain range. Chesterwood is notably one of the earliest venues in the United States to showcase large-scale works in an outdoor setting. Since 1978, over 600 emerging and established artists’ works have been exhibited at Chesterwood. Situated on 122 acres in the idyllic hamlet of Glendale near Stockbridge, Mass., the property and its buildings were donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by French’s only child Margaret French Cresson (1889-1973). Chesterwood is recognized as both a National Historic Landmark and a Massachusetts Historic Landmark. For more information and resources about the life and art of Daniel Chester French as well as photos and videos, please visit www.Chesterwood.org ABOUT THE BERKSHIRES Less than three hours from New York City and Boston, the Berkshires offers culture and adventure year-round. The surrounding mountains provide plenty of opportunity for outdoor excursions in all seasons while world class culture and entertainment, along with a deeply rooted food culture and an array of lodging options amidst picturesque towns, set this region apart. For more information, see www.berkshires.org or www.stockbridgechamber.org. Contact: Margaret Cherin, Senior Site Manager mcherin@chesterwood.org (413) 298-2034 (o) (413) 446-9741 (m)

It was meant to be a special day out by the house of legendary fiddler Joe Thomson, the last in a long series of interviews for Black Fiddlers, the documentary about a United States tradition born in Africa, that pretty soon found us deep into a rabbit-hole of black-folklore -music and food- a place where north and south, east and west strive to complete the untold story of black fiddling, from the early days of colonial Williamsburg to the Carolina Chocolate Drops. It was a long-planned meetup in Mebane, one that nearly shipwrecked when the alternative became a talking head interview with Rhiannon Giddens in Manhattan. The latter would not work, the idea of meeting with Giddens in the lobby of a hotel during her US tour was incompatible with my documentary tradition. The encounter between the musician and the camera had to take place where it all started, at Joe Thomson’s home in Mebane, North Carolina. Please, consider your support us on Kickstarter. Show your LOVE for BLACK FIDDLERS and be a part of this documentary film. Arrangements were made, and Rhiannon was able to fly from Ireland to meet with us and with fiddler Justin Robinson, friend, and co-founder of the Chocolate Drops. Justin and Rhiannon go way back and when they start playing together it is easier to understand how the river flows, how their music happens when there is communion which is another way of saying community. They arrived on set on time at 10:30, on Tuesday. Boone, Joe Thomson’s grandson had been cooking all night for the occasion. A feast of soul food, true to Bonne’s nature and loyal to his heritage. I wish I could describe it better, but for that I’m adding a short video in which the chef himself explains the did. This was the first time that Rhiannon and Justine had been back to the place where it all started, where they met Joe and learned from Joe about the music that pretty much defines who they are today. As griots they are, they told us how it was that all began in the front porch of that same house where we were filming the last interview for Black Fiddlers. They also played and switch instruments showing how the music flows not that through them but between one another. After a superb meal, prepared the night before by Joe’s grandson, he headed to Mebane’s Park, site of a sculptural memorial to Joe and Odell Thomson. That was another special moment, one that might even repeat itself when and if -COVID permits- the memorial is finally dedicated with an audience, with the peoples of Mebane who still remember Joe and Odell with sincere love and devotion. As for Black Fiddlers and me, what can I say… It was one magnificent day in good company, and my film has now all it needs to pull it through the final stages of the editing experience. See you all in the other side, in a festival or two.

A two-day filming escapade to New York On a recent two-day shoot in NYC with had an opportunity to meet Thayer Tolles, Marica F. Vilcek Curator of American Painting and Sculpture, and Eve Kahn, anindependent scholar specializing in art and architectural history, design, and preservation, and frequent collaborator with Antiques Magazine and The New York Times. The conversation with Tolles was particularly focused on Daniel Chester French’s connection to the MET, while the focus of our visit with Eve Kahn’s dealt primarily with the figure of the legendary African American model Hettie Anderson. Temporary sound, unmixed. For Preview Sequence Only. Piano by Olga Halperin. While in New York, we were also able to slip one more under the wire for Black Fiddlers (currently in postproduction) with an interview with Henrique Prince from The Ebony Hillbillies. The interview and performance took place at the Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and we’re hoping to report on that shoot as soon as we get an opportunity to edit a preview sequence.

When I moved to Charlottesville in 2010, my only contact was Jared Loewenstein, funder and curator of The Jorge Luis Borges Collection at Alderman Library at the University of Virginia. I met Jared back in 1999 when I visited the University as a guest of the Spanish Department. The purpose of that visit was to show my film on Jorge Luis Borges, meet with students to discuss Borges and frolic on grounds conceived by the all-mighty Thomas Jefferson. Jared was a knowledgeable man, intellectually generous, and fun to be around. Unlike most faculty, Jared was always ready to talk about Borges’ visit to Charlottesville or his travels to Buenos Aires in search for documents and first editions which account today, along with those of Austin and Notre Dame, as one of the three best collections of Borges papers, or Borgeana. After the permanent move to Charlottesville with my family in 2010, I proposed a documentary film about him to Jared, and he accepted. The film is now as old as my third child, born in Charlottesville in 2012. Jared and I had lots of fun making this film, a short documentary vignette in the life of a noble Southerner that remains one of my favorites.

Kanopy Streaming announced the immediate release of The Other Madisons, the hidden story of the Black descendants of James Madison, president of the United States of America, with an African slave. The distribution label reaching out to thousands of public and academic libraries in most English-speaking territories and Germany, has recommended the film to African American Studies, Race & Class Studies. The film, directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, and partially based on the homonymous book by Bettye Kearse, received several mentions, awards, and the recognition of multiple forums. Link to Kanopy selection: https://www.kanopy.com/product/other-madisons

Meet Brent Leggs; he probably has the best job in the world. He’s the current Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at The National Trust for Historic Preservation. The title sounds a bit long, but the designation is worth every word. I met Brent years ago at James Madison’s Montpellier. That earlier opportunity was ideal for a few portraits of Brent, which were later used on the award-winning exhibit The Mere Distinction of Colour, yes, with the old English spelling, which my word processor just refused to recognize. Back then, we did not get a chance to talk much, but yesterday we agreed to meet in the District (elegant Virginian mode to refer to the Nation’s capital), and we did. During our encounter in DC, we filmed a presentation for Chesterwood, home-studio, and gardens of Daniel Chester French. After wrapping that initial shoot, we headed for Union Station, where Brent could catch a train for New York. On the way, we talked some more at leisure, always in the spirit of documenting a story. What transpired from that conversation was his enthusiasm and commitment to restoring Nina Simone’s birthplace in North Carolina and Langston Hughes’s home in Harlem. According to the Smithsonian, Brent Leggs is the author of a “seminal publication on preserving African American historic sites.” Brent is a national leader in the U.S. preservation movement and the 2018 recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award. His passion for elevating the significance of black culture in American history is visible through his work, which promotes the remarkable stories and places that evoke centuries of black activism, achievement, and community.

The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia was organized in 1935. The founders were scholars and elected officials who shared a wish to meet regularly in the national capital to study and promote the governing philosophy and perpetuate the legacy of our 16th president. David J. Kent, current president of The Lincoln Group, recently wrote, "Daniel Chester French, the world-renowned sculptor who created the grand seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, is finally getting a documentary made about him. Apparently, no one had ever made a documentary of French before, which surprised even Donna Hassler, the executive director of Chesterwood, the western Massachusetts house that was French's long-time studio." The article entitled Lincoln Memorial Sculptor Daniel Chester French Finally Gets a Documentary by David J.Kent is -in prat- reproduced herein. And what great timing! The film, which is being produced, written, and directed by Argentinian-American filmmaker Eduardo Montes-Bradley, is scheduled to be completed in time for the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Memorial occurring in May 2022. The world premiere is expected to be at a southern Berkshire venue (not far from Chesterwood, no doubt) on Memorial Day weekend. Collaborating with Montes-Bradley is scholar Daniel Preston, the two of whom immersed themselves in both Chesterwood (French's summer home for nearly 35 years) and Meadowlark (French's second studio). Preston had edited French's letters, papers, and notes while collaborating with biographer Michael Richman. Montes-Bradley also discussed the project with more recent French biographer and Lincoln Group of DC member, Harold Holzer.

Notes for a documentary film on Daniel Chester French If you ever walk south on Broadway, all the way to the tip of Manhattan, you might find yourself in front of a most hideous sculpture by Arturo Di Modica: The Charging Bull. The brass mammal representing the power financial world (although that might not have been the intent of the artist in the wake of 1987 Black Monday) is an imposing mass weighting 7100 ponds. Some may disagree, but I find the beast unappealing and unapologetically grotesque. Although I must admit that have been greatly influenced in my discontent by the public drawn to the site. On a cold afternoon when the temperatures range between freezing and Oh my God it’s cold!, tourist of all corners of the world will line up to be photographed, to actually document the fact that they came to see the abhorrent brass-monster in the financial capital of the free world. And they would do that on either end of the minotaur. You see, the animal can either be approached from its head or tail. Some visitors prefer to be portrayed holding on to the magnificent horns while others kneel behind next to the ruminant’s testicles which already shows brighter than the rest. The same happens in Verona with the Juliet’s left breast which, according to Italian tradition will bring good luck to those who dare the touch. On the opposite of the Bowling Green, Manhattan’s first public park, stands the US Custom’s House. The building, combining elements of Beaux Arts and City Beautiful planning principles, stands were the exchange of twenty-four dollars for the property of the land give bird the the most successful real-estate investment of all times. The architect Cass Gilbert, of the famed New York firm McKim, Mead and White, was in charge of the design of the Custom’s House which on it’s north façade exhibits outstanding works of art by Daniel Chester French, one for each of the continents represented. These sculptures can be appreciated from multiple angles, and approached in different directions. In all, each sculpture reveals complementary arguments redefining the idea of Africa, Asia, America and Europe in The north face of the US Custom’s House and the rear end of the Charging Bull are separated by the gated and minuscule Bowling Green, and although thousands of tourists come to worship the reproductive organs of the bully, almost none can be seen appreciating the works of Daniel Chester French which certainly stand for the same values of mercantile expansionism. The difference, I imagine, is perhaps that the latter are prove to be more refine, infinitely more attractive and eloquent. Perhaps, what caught my attention today was not Di Modica’s Frankenstein as much as the fact that the my fellow travelers seem to have misplaced the compass that once guided the ideals of public art, or even more worrisome the fact that s single image propelled by advertising and social media can obscure the beauty on the other side of the park.