FESTIVALS

CANNES 2008 – ABEL FERRARA DOC TO HAVE ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT CANNES

Abel Ferrara’s Chelsea On The Rocks will be premiering in Cannes. It’s a documentary about one of downtown Manhattan’s legendary hotel. Since 1883 The Chelsea Hotel has been a home to artists great and small, from icons such as Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Tennessee Williams, Charles Bukowski, Andy Warhol and Mark Twain, to assorted aspirants, junkies, prostitutes and hermits. But new management has recently begun evicting boho tenants in favor of a more upscale crowd, prompting long-time resident – and consummate New Yorker – Abel Ferrara to capture the ragged splendor of the place before its unique spirit is lost forever. Trolling the low-lit halls, visiting the hotel’s cast of memorable characters and raconteurs, and hanging out in the gallery-like lobby strewn with tenants’ paintings, Chelsea On The Rocks brims with gallows humor and a hard-knock warmth to match its uniquely beloved subject. As yet another of New York’s cultural landmarks threatens to vanish, Ferrara passionately shows how it’s often the misfit structures – and dwellers – that possess a city’s soul (Deerjen Films).This is Ferrara’s first documentary feature (his previous films include GO GO TALES, KING OF NEW YORK, BAD LIEUTENANT). Chelsea On the Rocks includes interviews with residents past and present such as Milos Forman, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper and R. Crumb, vintage music and archival footage, and dramatic re-enactments summoning ghosts of the Chelsea’s storied past – Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious, Janis Joplin – performed by Bijou Phillips, Jamie Burke, Adam Goldberg, Giancarlo Esposito and Grace Jones (pictured: Bijou Phillips in Chelsea On The Rocks)