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Community Corner

Arts Center Airs Hinton Documentary

"Keeping Time" showcases the man behind the lens in current exhibit.

"Keeping Time: The Life, Music and Photographs of Milt Hinton," a rarely seen film, was aired at the Westport Arts Center Sunday night as a complement to the current exhibit, "The Judge: Jazz Photographs by Musician Milt Hinton."

The exhibit of black-and-white photographs captures private moments in the lives of black musicians during an era when jazz music was well-received but many of  its most legendary musicians were not.

Photos in the show, taken by revered bassist Milt Hinton (1910-2000) who worked with such legends as Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, capture these performers during a period when America was segregated.

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The film, produced by David G. Berger and Kate Hirson, celebrates the man behind the lens. Peppered with interviews by many famed musicians who knew and loved Hinton, and a soundtrack that will hit high notes with jazz enthusiasts, the producers spoke to the audience following the 60-minute film's showing.

The film captures the African-American experience in the 20th century through the life of Hinton, from his early days in the oppressive segregation of Mississippi through his world travels as a performer.

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In the documentary, Hinton speaks of witnessing a lynching as a child, the intervention of gangster Al Capone to save young Milt's finger from amputation after an auto accident and breaking the race barrier in the New York recording studios. Mona Hinton, as the only band wife on the road with the Cab Calloway Orchestra, describes knocking on doors in colored neighborhoods in the South to arrange lodging for the musicians. Hinton also describes the 1958 Esquire magazine reunion celebrated in 'A Great Day in Harlem' as the footage shot by his wife appears on screen.

"Keeping Time: The Life, Music and Photographs of Milt Hinton" was a labor of love that took a decade to complete, Berger told the 80-person audience.  He and Hirson began the project in the 1990s and completed it in 2002.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Berger first met Hinton in 1955 when Berger was an aspiring musician at 14. The pair struck up an unlikely, yet long-lasting, friendship.

Arranging interviews with the likes of Quincy Jones, Branford Marsalis, Gregory Hines and Joe Williams was one of the time-consuming aspects, but another factor was their pair's lack of experience in film production. "Although Holly worked with photographs professionally and I co-wrote two books with Milt, we had no experience with film," said Berger. "We hired professionals who provided expertise, helped shape the documentary and taught us filmmaking basics."

They also had to sort through the 60,000 photographs that Hinton had taken during his lifetime. "We had to number, archive, cross-reference and categorize every picture," said Maxxsn. "This took months and months and months."

The film had its international premier at the London Film Festival in 2002 and its U.S. premier at the Tribecca Film Festival in 2003 where it won the Audience Choice Award. In addition to playing at other film festivals in the United States and abroad, a shorter version has aired on the PBS series, Independent Lens.

 The exhibit of Hinton's photos will remain on view at the Westport Arts Center through February.

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