Creating Carmine Street Guitars with Ron Mann

Over the past 40 years, Ron Mann has produced and directed a dozen films focused on Canadian and American culture. His wide ranging subjects include comic books, jazz, beat poets, the war on marijuana, environmental activism and film director Robert Altman.  In 2018 he turned the camera lens on Carmine Street Guitars, Rick Kelly’s cramped music shop  in Greenwich Village. The result is a critically acclaimed film that documents a week in the life of the store and the characters that walk in and out the front door including long time customers and some brand new strangers. 

Rick Kelly has been building and selling guitars out of his current location on Carmine Street since 1990.  What makes Rick and Carmine Street Guitars so compelling is Rick’s search throughout New York City for reclaimed wood from the Big Apple’s historical buildings which he then turns into custom instruments. The film doesn’t smash you over the head with a lot of action but is, instead, sort of like a sweet lullaby.  As a film buff I was curious as to how Ron approaches the task of making a documentary and as a guitar nerd I wanted to ask him about how he came to discover Carmine Street Guitars. 

In addition to directing films through his own Sphinx Productions, Ron Mann also puts the focus on otherwise ignored work though his distribution company Films We Like. You can check out all of their titles, including Carmine Street Guitars by logging in to filmswelike.com.

Read the full interview at imstevewaxman.com

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