Film

Carmine Street Guitars

A documentary portrait of Rick Kelly's Carmine Street Guitars, a handcrafted instrument workshop in Greenwich Village resisting gentrification. Director Douglas Tirling spends five days watching Kelly and apprentice Cindy Hulej build guitars from reclaimed wood, with appearances from devoted musicians like Dylan and Patti Smith. It's a quiet love letter to craft, place, and the people who refuse to leave.

If you liked this

20 Feet from Stardom2013

Celebrates unsung masters of their craft—backup singers who shaped iconic music. Shares the doc's interest in skilled people whose work outlives fashion and hype.

But Focuses on fame's aftermath and loss in ways that can feel melancholic. Some sections drag slightly despite the powerful archive footage.

20 Feet from Stardom poster

Dig!2004

Documents the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre across a decade of rivalry and creation. Raw, unglamorous look at how art actually gets made, day by grinding day.

But Chaotic editing and herky-jerky pacing can feel exhausting rather than intimate. Some viewers find the interpersonal drama distracting from the music.

Dig! poster

It Might Get Loud2008

Three guitarists—Page, White, The Edge—discuss their instruments and approach. Respects the guitar as a thinking tool, not just a symbol, the way Carmine Street does.

But Heavily produced and stylized; feels like a concert film pretending to be a documentary. The three musicians don't really challenge each other.

It Might Get Loud poster

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The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover1989

Both examine how capitalism devours beauty and community. Greenaway screams where Kelly whispers, but they're mourning the same thing.

Peter Greenaway's baroque, brutal film about consumption and ownership in a rotting world. Visual feast that explores gentrification and displacement through colour, bodies, and space—the opposite register from Carmine Street, but the same rage at what we lose.

But Intensely graphic violence, perverse sexuality, and wilfully difficult visual language. Not a comfortable watch; some find it pretentious or unwatchable.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover poster
More like this (5)

The Toys That Made Us2017

Explores how a simple design became a global phenomenon through obsessive attention to detail and meaning. The philosophy mirrors Kelly's approach to every guitar.

But Part of a hit series, so it's glossier and more mass-market than an intimate workshop doc. Some episodes feel more commercial than artful.

The Toys That Made Us poster

My Name Is Khan2010

Different genre entirely, but Jarmusch appears as himself; watch it for his scenes if you want more of his particular genius and how he thinks about art and time.

But It's a full Bollywood drama, not a doc. Including this feels like cheating, and most viewers won't connect it to what they loved about Carmine Street.

My Name Is Khan poster

The Battered Bastards of Baseball2014

Outsiders who refused to play by the system and built something beautiful on their own terms. Same DNA as Carmine Street—resilience, skill, and loyalty to craft over profit.

But Baseball movie; if the sport doesn't interest you, the metaphor may not carry enough weight to sustain your attention.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball poster

Jiro Dreams of Sushi2011

Both films sanctify the handmade object and the person who makes it. The philosophy is identical: mastery through thousands of repetitions, beauty as a moral act.

A meditative portrait of an 85-year-old sushi master pursuing perfection through repetition and reverence. David Gelb's film moves at the speed of attention and craft, finding transcendence in discipline.

But Methodical to the point of stasis. If you need plot momentum or conflict, you will be frustrated. Also feels distant—you never truly know Jiro as a person.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi poster

The Last Waltz1978

Both eulogize a vanishing world—the film captures the moment before everything changes. A goodbye to an American way of creating that won't come back.

Scorsese's concert film documenting The Band's final show, with interviews woven through. Elegiac, beautiful, and shot like a requiem for an entire era and way of making music together.

But Primarily a concert performance, not a documentary in the Carmine Street sense. You need to care about The Band and 1970s rock to fully invest.

The Last Waltz poster

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