Carmine Street Guitars

Carmine Street Guitars

Five days in the life of fabled Greenwich Village guitar store Carmine Street Guitars.

2018 · 86 min · ★ 7.2 · Documentary

Once the centre of the New York bohemia, Greenwich Village is now home to lux restaurants, and buzzer door clothing stores catering to the nouveau riche. But one shop in the heart of the Village remains resilient to the encroaching gentrification: Carmine Street Guitars. There, custom guitar maker Rick Kelly and his young apprentice Cindy Hulej, build handcrafted guitars out of reclaimed wood from old hotels, bars, churches and other local buildings. Nothing looks or sounds quite like a Rick Kelly guitar, which is the reason they are embraced by the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, just to name a few. Featuring a cast of prominent musicians and artists, the film captures five days in the life of Carmine Street Guitars, while examining an all-too-quickly vanishing way of life.

Directed by Ron Mann · Written by Len Blum

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Rent or Buy

Cast

Rick Kelly Self
Cindy Hulej Self
Jim Jarmusch Self
Eszter Balint Self
Kirk Douglas Self
Dorothy Kelly Self, Rick Kelly's mother
Nels Cline Self
Lenny Kaye Self
Charlie Sexton Self
Dallas Good Self, The Sadies
Travis Good Self, The Sadies
Bill Frisell Self

Make it a double feature

2h 39m together

Carmine Street Guitars

Clairtone

Both from Ron Mann.

More from Ron MannSee all →

Clairtone

Clairtone · 2025

MovieDocumentary

Canadian electronics company Clairtone finds a successful niche producing high-end modernist stereo systems before succumbing to hard economic realities.

Listen to the City

Listen to the City · 1984

Listen to the City

Hupar wakes up from a 20-year coma. Disoriented, he soon meets Arete, a young poet and Sophis, a TV newswoman. Together, the three team up to expose corporate crime in a crumbling city scape of the very near future.

Mighty Uke

Mighty Uke · 2011

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Mighty Uke travels the world to discover why so many people of different nations, cultures, ages and musical tastes are turning to the ukulele to express themselves, connect with the past, and with each other.

Poetry in Motion

Poetry in Motion · 1982

Poetry in Motion

MovieDocumentary

More than 20 contemporary North American poets recite, sing, and perform their work. Early in the film, Charles Bukowski talks about the energy of poets and of a poem. These poets are the children of Walt Whitman and of Charles Olson, incantatory and oratorical, radical, sometimes incorporating contemporary political imagery. Black Mountain poets, the Beats, minimalists like John Cage, the wordless Four Horsemen, Tom Waits, and others capture aspects of poets as troubadours.

The Sadies Stop and Start

The Sadies Stop and Start · 2022

The Sadies Stop and Start

MovieMusicDocumentary

The Sadies Stop and Start captures a moment in time. That time was uncertain and dark. Still reeling from losing Dallas, we found out that Mike needed to have emergency wrist surgery. We needed to play these songs, not knowing if we would ever have the opportunity again. With one day's notice, documentary filmmaker Ron Mann and a stellar crew pulled together to help us capture these songs. Friends and family gathered to help out and show their support. James McKenty engineered in his mobile recording trailer, In Record Time Studio. The resulting film looked and sounded better than we could have hoped. We are thankful to share that Mike's surgery was successful and we are back out on the road and coming to a city near you.

Imagine the Sound

Imagine the Sound · 1981

Imagine the Sound

MovieDocumentaryMusic

An examination, shown through both interviews and performances, of the avant-garde free jazz movement which reigned during the 1960s.

Pure Pwnage

Pure Pwnage · 2004

This fictional series purports to chronicle the life and adventures of Jeremy, a Canadian and self-proclaimed "pro gamer".

Brakhage

Brakhage · 1998

MovieDocumentary

BRAKHAGE explores the depth and breadth of the filmmaker’s genius, the exquisite splendor of his films, his magic personal charm, his aesthetic fellow travelers, and the influence his work has had on generations of other creators. While touching on significant moments in Brakhage’s biography, the film celebrates Brakhage’s visionary genius, and explores the extraordinary artistic possibilities of cinema, a medium mostly known only for its commercial applications in the form of narratives, cartoons, documentaries, and advertising. BRAKHAGE combines excerpts from Brakhage’s films and films of other avant-garde filmmakers (eg, George Kuchar, Jonas Mekas, Willie Varela, Bruce Elder, and others); interviews with Brakhage, his friends, family, colleagues, and critics; archival footage of Brakhage spanning the past thirty-five years; and location shooting in Boulder, Colorado and New York.

I Called Him Morgan

I Called Him Morgan · 2016

I Called Him Morgan

MovieMusicDocumentary

Part jazz history, part true-crime tale, Kasper Collin’s new documentary employs extensive archival footage and new interviews to tell the tragic story of the magnificently talented trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who murdered him in a New York bar in 1972.

Blue Rodeo: In Stereovision

Blue Rodeo: In Stereovision · 2004

Blue Rodeo: In Stereovision

MovieMusicDocumentary

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of country rockers Blue Rodeo, this collection includes a documentary about the band, a reunion concert with the five original members, new songs "Rena" and "Up on That Cloud," and historic performance clips. Songs include "Dark Angel," "Bad Timing," "Bulletproof," "Crying Over You," "House of Dreams," "Lost Together," "Heart Like Mine," "Walk Like You Don't Mind," "Moon and Tree" and more.

Comic Book Confidential

Comic Book Confidential · 1989

Comic Book Confidential

MovieDocumentary

A survey of the artistic history of the comic book medium and some of the major talents associated with it.

Go Further

Go Further · 2003

MovieDocumentary

"Go Further" explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change. The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fueled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal? To show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives.

Altman

MovieDocumentary

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.

Grass

MovieDocumentary

Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by many governments on Earth. In this Genie Award-winning documentary, veteran Canadian director Ron Mann and narrator Woody Harrelson mix humour and historical footage together to recount how the United States has demonized a relatively harmless drug.

Twist

MovieDocumentary

Combining rare and often hilarious archival footage with engaging interviews, this groovy documentary chronicles the evolution of the titular postwar rock ’n' roll dance craze that took America by storm. Featuring singers and musicians who helped define the phenomenon like Hank Ballard, Chubby Checker, and Joey Dee, as well as clips from TV shows like “American Bandstand,” TWIST tells the overlooked story of how shaking your hips went from being a sign of social degeneracy to the dance form that rocked the world.

Tales of the Rat Fink

Tales of the Rat Fink · 2006

Tales of the Rat Fink

MovieDocumentary

This is an interesting look at the Life and Times of car customizer/cartoonist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Through the use of many graphically enhanced photographs and "talking" cars, it is a loving look at the car culture in Southern California from the Early 50's to Ed's Passing in 2001.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter