The Braddock Chronicles includes the acclaimed J. Roy: New and Used Furniture, wherein Buba introduces us to a Braddock entrepreneur who has failed at 12 businesses and is busy teaching would-be entrepreneurs self-confidence; Sweet Sal, a portrait of a wiry, engaging street hustler, Sal Carulli, whose cocky patter breaks down at the end of the film, when he visits his father’s grave; and The Mill Hunk Herald, a trip inside a Steel Valley workers’ magazine, which looks like raw material for a Bruce Springsteen song.
“The subjects of Tony Buba’s film are an unaffected woman washing windows and recalling her immigration from Italy, a used furniture salesman, steelworkers eating at Betty’s Corner Cafe. Through Mr. Buba’s camera lens, simple images like these have become historic records of a way of life that is slowly diminishing.” –The New York Times
The Braddock Chronicles is distributed by Kino Lorber and can be purchased in a compilation along with other short films and Lightning Over Braddock here.
Tape I
1972 To My Family (2 min)
1974 J. Roy: New and Used Furniture (11 min)
1975 Shutdown (13 min)
1976 Betty’s Corner Cafe (11 min)
1980 Washing Walls With Mrs. G. (5 min)
1980 Home Movies (3 min)
1980 Homage to a Mill Town (2 min)
1979 Sweet Sal (25.5 min)
1981 Mill Hunk Herald (12 min)
1983 Peabody & Friends (10 min)
1985 Braddock Food Bank (4.5 min)
1985 Birthday Party (5.5 min)