Lost Bohemia

Synopsis

For over 100 years, the most significant 20th century artists and performers have lived and worked in the 165 landmark Studios atop Carnegie Hall, including Marilyn Monroe, Isadora Duncan, Barnett Newman, Norman Mailer, Marlon Brando and George Balanchine. In 2001, the Carnegie Hall Corporation began to systematically evict the artists (some in residence for over forty years), destroy the Studios and convert the spaces into offices.

Alarmed by the situation, photographer Josef Astor, a resident of the Carnegie Hall Studios for over twenty years, began to film his neighboring artists, the ballet school, drama classes, dancers, singing teachers, sculptors, painters and writers. Over a period of eight years, first-time director Astor filmed several hundred hours of the remaining artist tenants as they fought to preserve the Studios for future generations. LOST BOHEMIA is Astor’s intimate, affectionate portrait of these extraordinary people and chronicles the pleasures and struggles of working artists in New York City.

LOST BOHEMIA is the only film documentation of the Carnegie Studios, the artists and the Studio’s significant history. Vintage film, photographs, television footage, materials from the artist’s private collections and music complete the documentary’s story.