As the director nears his 11th decade, two of his films, Nothing But a Man and The Plot Against Harry are being restored; both are marvels of independent cinemaMichael Roemer, 95, is one of film’s finest chroniclers of postwar American aspiration.
His debut, Nothing But a Man, won two prizes at the Venice film festival over half a century ago, using Euro-neorealism to tell the story of a working-class Black couple in Alabama.
The result is a moving and unflinching depiction of the daily realities of racism, and one of the most brilliant truly independent films of all time.Nothing But a Man, like the rest of Roemer’s filmography, refused to heed the production and aesthetic conventions of its day.
“If I could have made popular films, I would have,” he says.
“But I believe in something.
If I betray it then I destroy myself.”…
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