America: Everything You’ve Ever Dreamed Of

Rhody Streeter & Tony Ganz - New Restorations

As funny as they are unsettling, as affectionate as they are trenchant, and made with a refreshing concision that belies the depth of their cultural and social observations, the short documentaries of Tony Ganz and Rhody Streeter are ripe for rediscovery. Featured in their day on the public television series “The Great American Dream Machine” and “The 51st State,” and screened in the 1970s at MoMA, Film Forum and the Whitney Museum, as well as in a program curated by Amos Vogel. Never before screened as a collection, many of their films have been newly restored and are poised to regain their rightful place as some of the most eccentric and hilarious examples of 1970s documentary filmmaking in the U.S.

Turning their mordant, deadpan eye on a wide variety of uniquely American phenomena – from retirees in Sun Valley and honeymooners in the Poconos, to sign painters in Brooklyn, phone help-line operators, female comportment instructors, Muzak executives, and the denizens of a Bowery men’s shelter – Ganz and Streeter’s films deserve to be set alongside such masterpieces of satirical Americana as Errol Morris’s early films, Garry Winogrand’s photographs, and John Wilson’s short films and television work.

‘The Best of Your Life (aka Sun City),’ 1971, 9 min

‘Honeymoon Hotel,’ 1971, 4 min

‘Risen Indeed (aka Campus Crusade For Christ,’ 1972, 6 min

‘Hoi – Village Life In Tonga,’ 1967-69, 9 min

‘A Better Day In Every Way (aka Muzak),’ 1972, 6 min

‘Help-Line,’ 1972, 6 min

‘Woman Unlimited,’ 1972, 4 min

‘Sign Painters (aka Signs),’ 1972, 6 min

‘Bower Men’s Shelter,’ 1973, 10 min

‘A Trip Through the Brooks Home,’ 1971-73, 8 min

FORMAT: DCP