SUNDANCE CHANNEL
24 Frame News. In Production - NightOwls of Coventry
DIRECTED BY:
Laura Paglin
WRITTEN BY:
Laura Paglin
CAST
Seymour Horowitz
Annie Kitral
Paddy Connor
STATUS
Post-Production
Originally from Portland, filmmaker Laura Paglin eventually found a home and a story idea for her first feature film, NIGHTOWLS OF COVENTRY, in Cleveland, Ohio. Paglin explains, “There is a two-block strip called Coventry, which was a sort of mini Greenwich Village in Cleveland. The bulk of the film takes place in Marv’s deli, a 24-Hour spot that’s essentially a home to lost souls. All of the characters in the film can’t get away from the deli: it’s really where they live and where everything takes place. The film takes place during a period of urban sprawl when the neighborhood is in jeopardy of being closed down.”
This historically special community provided Paglin both with a dramatic stage and a lesson in tolerance. She recounts, “Coventry was in its heyday in 1973, when all the crazy stuff was going on, with bikers coming in and the hippie movement, and all of this was happening in this old immigrant Jewish neighborhood. From what I understand, the older folks tolerated the hippies, so that the deli was kind of a big dysfunctional family.”
To shoot this ensemble piece in one area, Paglin looked for early models: “I wanted the emphasis not to be on a single character but on the place itself. So I watch SMOKE and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW because they focused on one location.”