June Roses

. . . isn't like any other movie I've seen.

The first part is a narrative film set in the 1950s, shot, in a style beautifully evocative of that era, more than 20 years ago.

Director Christine Noschese, best known for her documentary Metropolitan Avenue, based the story on the daughter she was then and her mother, a frustrated artist and musician. Released in 1991 at 43 minutes, that version of June Roses was screened at New Directors the following year, and was the basis of a script that was intended to be a feature.

That feature never happened. But years later, Noschese revisited her characters and their story, flashing forward to the 1960s--now shooting in video for a rougher, tougher look--and using the same principal actors. Only recently has she put the earlier and later parts of the film together, and she's still tweaking it.

I had the pleasure of seeing this new version of June Roses over the summer at a screening sponsored by New York Women in Film and Television.

Moving, funny, and deep, it's a true original--on the verge of finding its audience.