Notfilm

NOTFILM is Ross Lipman s acclaimed kino-essay on the making and meaning of FILM by Samuel Beckett. Unlike any other film for its in-depth, mesmerizing analysis of one short film, it has been acclaimed by critics and audiences everywhere. Lipman s obsession with FILM began when, as a teenaged cinephile, he first learned that Irish Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett had written a short that starred silent film genius Buster Keaton. Decades later, Lipman, now an accomplished film restorationist, jumped at the chance to preserve Film and to meet and talk with the extraordinary man who produced it, maverick publisher and First Amendment champion Barney Rosset. During a visit to Rosset s NYC loft, Lipman asked if there was any extra footage from the 1964 shoot. The reels that he discovered under the sink in the publisher s kitchen started Lipman on the long road from Film to Notfilm. For more than seven years he traveled the world interviewing friends, family, and collaborators including Beckett s biographer James Knowlson, film historian Kevin Brownlow, actress Billie Whitelaw, Keaton s friend (and actor in Film) James Karen, and writer Leonard Maltin who visited the set as a star-struck 14-year-old Buster fan. Lipman s long fascination and tireless efforts have resulted in Notfilm, a film exploration that is mesmerizing, entertaining and timeless.