Pop

Joel Meyerowitz
USA, 1998, 79 mins.

Producer: Joel Meyerowitz
Directors of Photography: Joel and Sasha Meyerowitz
Editor Mona Davis. Music Bill Frisell

With his first movie, Joel Meyerowitz, the photographer best known for his classic book Cape Light, has made a touching valentine to his 87-year-old father. Joel and his son decide to take Hy (who is fighting Alzheimer's) on a last adventure, a road trip from Florida to New York City. Pop records the journey, following the engaging and unpredictable Hy as he encounters strangers, makes phone calls to his beloved wife Sally, and tries to revive fading memories. Woven into the film are home movies showing Hy as a strapping younger man. At one point, Hy laments, "I loved everybody but nobody saw me, nobody remembered me. But I was there." Thanks to this lovely documentary about family, memory, and the wonders of everyday life, Hy won't be forgotten. - David Schwartz