PRESSING ON: THE LETTERPRESS FILM – A Review by Cynthia Flores
If you think a documentary about letterpress printing, how and why it has survived, would be boring then you would be WRONG! This is the feature directorial/writing debut for this talented team of Erin Beckloff and Andrew P. Quinn and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
They’ve taken what could have been a very dry story of the community keeping the art of letterpress alive and made it relevant and even personal. There’s a fascinating mix of personalities from the young Iowa couple that have rescued letterpresses and brought them back to life to set up a print shop in their garage. Not only to make some extra money with what they print but to keep history out of the trash heap. To the old master printer that has taken a Monotype letterpress made around 1904 and with the help of a computer genius friend, hooked it up to a Mac laptop. With custom software and air tubes, it’s actually being run by the Mac instead of manually typing out the letters manually that it mills into the letterpress metal print plate. As he put it “It’s like pushing a wooden wagon with a jet engine, but it has extended the life and use of this type of printing press.
I have to give a big shout out to the cinematography in this film. The loving attention to the machines in motion is beautiful. Even the printed pages and posters looked sexy and came alive as we listened to their history and how they were made.
The documentary Pressing On is at times quite compelling as it deals with the danger of irreplaceable knowledge of the historic craft being lost as it’s caretakers age. This is a wonderful film that I hope they show in schools and colleges to pass on the information and love of the power of the printed word and the actual presses that still create it. I hope it finds its audience because it’s such a wonderful gem of a film.
I give it a solid A rating and know you will enjoy it as much as I do.
Directed by Erin Beckloff, Andrew P. Quinn
Written By Erin Beckloff, Andrew P. Quinn
Rated NA
Selig Rating A
Running Time 1 hr 39 min
Documentary
Limited Release June 19th and VOD
Starring: Adam Winn, Paul Aken, Stephanie Carpenter, Richard Carpenter
The Selig Rating Scale:
A – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
B – Good movie
C – OK movie
D – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
F – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn't paid for it.
