[spacer height="-2.5%"]For five decades Tony Buba has chronicled the industrial decline of his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films are proud to present a two-disc collection of his newly restored films, including his feature-length masterpiece Lightning Over Braddock: A Rust Bowl Fantasy.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]DISC 1

Lightning Over Braddock (1988) To My Family (1972) J. Roy: New and Used Furniture (1974) Shutdown (1975) Betty’s Corner Café (1976) Sweet Sal (1979) Washing Walls with Mrs. G. (1980) Home Movies (1980) Homage to a Mill Town (1980)

[spacer height="-3.0%"]DISC 2

Mill Hunk Herald (1981) Peabody & Friends (1983) Voices from a Steeltown (1983) Braddock Food Bank (1985) Birthday Party (1985) Fade Out (1998) Year on the Throne (2007) Ode to a Steeltown (2007) Stigmata (2008) “The Fall” 1980 (2009) The Cot Club: Braddock Hospital (2012) Pirozzi’s Barber Shop (2017) Welcome to Sgambati’s (2017) The Barber of New Kensington (2019) The Last Pawn Shop in Braddock (2019) Making Soppressata with Dom and the Guys (2019) Pasta Lesson: A Sunday in Rabatana (2019) Reflexions (2019)

[spacer height="-3.0%"]*This item is available through distributor Kino Lorber and will not be added to your shopping cart on the Braddock Films website.* Continue reading

The post Lightning Over Braddock and Collected Shorts: The Films of Tony Buba appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]Ray Henderson was born and raised in North Braddock and Braddock and has been a community activist since 1965. Beginning in the 1980s, Ray began collecting oral histories of African-American steelworkers. In 1996, he and longtime friend, filmmaker Tony Buba, co-produced and co-directed the award-winning film Struggles in Steel: A History of African-American Steelworkers.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]The stories and poetry in My Three Books: A Life Journey document Ray Henderson’s memories and observations of his life journey in the Mon Valley towns of Braddock and North Braddock. After Ray came out of the military in the 60s, he began creating stories and poems about family, school, community, and work. Stories that he says, “Kept smacking me in the face. All based around the color of my skin.”

[spacer height="-3.0%"]For Ray, what infuses his memories are the unspoken separation lines of racial segregation, especially during the 40s, 50s, and 60s - separation lines that haven’t gone away all these years later. Throughout the book, Ray ponders what it is that makes people who are facing similar hardships divide themselves by race. A question that he still hasn’t answered to his satisfaction to this day.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]*This book is available through Amazon. You are not purchasing through Braddock Films. The item will not be added to your shopping cart on the Braddock Films website.* Continue reading

The post My Three Books: A Life Journey by Raymond Henderson (Book) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]Playing to an Empty House: A Christmas Special pays homage to Tony Buba's childhood home in Braddock, Pennsylvania. This is the same home that was featured in George Romero's vampire thriller Martin.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Playing features original songs for the season that were written and arranged by Steve Pellegrino and performed by Pellegrino and friends.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]The DVD contains your favorite Christmas classics like: "Christmas Without The Union;" "Please Forgive Me;" and "Blue Collar Christmas." Continue reading

The post Playing To An Empty House (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]Renowned performance artist Steve Pellegrino in his entertaining one man show about growing up in an immigrant Italian family, whose lives were affected by the great depression, union organizing, and WWII.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Accordion Stories is storytelling at its best, interspersed with music and song. Pellegrino tells engaging tales of his family and their accordions and performs both popular songs as well as his own original tunes. Family, music, and the accordion lead to many stories and connections.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]“Pellegrino is not just a musician, he’s a storyteller who can talk and sing as well as play, and he has all the gusto of a Qualters painting." - Chris Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Continue reading

The post Accordion Stories (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]The film Jazz From A Very Special Hotel was made by St. Thomas high school students in the late 1960s. The film stars Raymond Thomas, Sharon Breeger, students of St. Thomas, and the people of Braddock.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Jazz features outstanding camera work by Michael Emery and Walter Szwarc and lighting by Larry Kuszaj and Robert Bordens. This masterpiece was unearthed by William Welch.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]The director was the late Laurence Taylor. Taylor, a St. Thomas English teacher who was irked by the portrayal of Braddock in the film Steeltown Blues, recruited 11th-graders to help him show that there was life in Braddock yet.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Proceeds from the sale of this film will go to the Braddock Carnegie Library. Continue reading

The post Jazz From A Very Special Hotel (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]Tony Buba’s first fiction feature film – based on a short story by the writer Jim Daniels – is a story about work and love and animals. It’s about the end of an age, mythical or real, when a job was a job, love was true, and everybody had a dog.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Graceful, modest, beautifully-acted, and increasingly moving, it’s a frank, perceptive, unvarnished portrait of working-class American life – the kind of film that, sadly, is exceedingly rare.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Pittsburgh Post-Gazette film critic Marylynn Uricchio noted: “Buba’s greatest gift has always been to find humor in the most dismal circumstances, and to find hope at every dead end – Buba finds everything that is noble about the human spirit and celebrates it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.” Continue reading

The post No Pets (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]When a local television station ran a program about the closing of the major steel mills in the Pittsburgh region, Ray Henderson, a former mill worker who had worked in the mills for 18 years, couldn’t help notice that not one black worker was shown, despite the fact that African-American workers had formed a critical part of the labor force in western Pennsylvania for 125 years.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]With his old friend Tony Buba, Henderson set out to collaborate on a history of African-Americans and their contributions not just to the steel industry, but to the labor movement itself. Through eloquent living witnesses and revelatory archival footage, Struggles In Steel presents a striking counterpoint to the stereotypical black male image. Continue reading

The post Struggles In Steel: A Story Of African-American Steelworkers (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]Braddock, Pennsylvania, is dying. Who killed it? Politicians? Big Business? Shopping Centers? Racism? And what can we learn from Braddock’s experience?

[spacer height="-3.0%"]In this film, Braddock’s few remaining residents reminisce about the town’s heyday, displaying a mix of stoicism, puzzlement, and humor as they try to figure out who is responsible for its slow death.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]Voices presents Braddock’s story in a forthright, thought-provoking manner that invariably stimulates lively reaction and discussion among viewers. The film’s powerful content, enhanced by sophisticated imagery and a haunting musical score, makes it memorable viewing.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]The DVD also includes Tony Buba's short film Fade Out, as well as a photo montage. Continue reading

The post Voices From A Steeltown (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..

[spacer height="-2.5%"]We Are Alive! The Fight To Save Braddock Hospital is a documentary feature film about the fight for quality healthcare for all.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]It is about the fight that residents from Braddock, Pennsylvania, and the Mon Valley waged against the $10 billion non-profit medical corporate giant - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center - to keep their community hospital (UPMC Braddock) open.

[spacer height="-3.0%"]This 'cinema verite' style documentary was shot over a 2 1/2 year period, from October 2009 to June 2012. The film follows the community from disbelief, to anger, to organizing, to taking it to the streets. Continue reading

The post We Are Alive – The Fight to Save Braddock Hospital (DVD) appeared first on Braddock Films, Inc..