The Dancing Soul of the Walking People

‘Under the Boardwalk’ sing The Drifters on the soundtrack, literally summarising the film. Between 1974 and 1976, artist Paula Gladstone filmed life under the boardwalk at Coney Island, the place where she was born. The moody black-and-white images of this Super-8 film concentrate on the play of light caused by the gaps in the planking above. Now and then, people walk under the boardwalk to the beach and briefly look into the camera. Two boys throw sand that causes beautiful reflections in the sunlight.
The soundtrack, which puts viewers in a trance-like state, consists of the hoof beats of horses and music by Duke Ellington, Alice Coltrane and Anthony Braxton – (experimental) jazz, among other things. Gladstone also reads a couple of her erotic poems.
Gladstone originally screened her film in 1980, but only recently did it become technically possible to restore and conserve it.

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