Nancy Buirski’s filmography has covered miscarriages of justice (“A Crime on the Bayou”), the intersection of racism, misogyny, and sexual violence (“The Rape of Recy Taylor”), and a landmark Supreme Court case (“The Loving Story”) — and now the documentarian is going behind the scenes on one of the most influential movies in cinematic history. Variety has confirmed Buirski is directing a doc about Oscar-winner “Midnight Cowboy,” and the shifting cultural and social winds that led to its production.
The as-yet untitled project is inspired by Glenn Frankel’s book “Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic,” the rights to which Buirski acquired through her production company, Augusta Films.
Released in 1969, “Midnight Cowboy” stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight as Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck, respectively, two small-time grifters trying to get by in a very gritty New York City. The film was originally rated X for its homoerotic undertones — it remains the only X-rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar.
“1969. John Schlesinger, Waldo Salt, and Jerome Hellman created a classic and changed the course of movie making. The studio system was sinking under its own weight; independent filmmaking was waiting in the wings for a chance to break through, although not necessarily with a movie that dealt with prostitution, sordid crime, and had a homosexual subtext,” “Shooting Midnight Cowboy’s” synopsis reads. “But emerging out of the protests of the ‘60s and the tragic murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., society was ready to face reality. Bloated musicals and melodramas were giving way to a more honest, if not cynical, look at the world. It was the right moment for novelist James Leo Herlihy’s utterly grim, but redemptive story.”
Written, directed, and produced by Buirski, the film “won’t be a straight making-of documentary,” the source specifies. “It will be equally interested in exploring the cultural and social upheaval of the late 1960s.”
Susan Margolin and Claire L. Chandler are among the doc’s producers.
“This is a film about a masterpiece and the moment and the much wider sociological, political, and human canvas on which it takes place. As dark as it is at times, it is laced with humor and hope,“ said Buirski. “Re-watching the film, I was reminded how beautifully it holds up after 50-plus years. I’d forgotten how tender it is.”
Frankel added, “Over the past decade, Nancy Buirski has created a body of work of thoughtful, artful, and socially conscious documentary films that range from the arts and popular culture to stories of ordinary people caught up in the struggle for racial justice. It’s an honor to collaborate with someone of her caliber and conscience to create a documentary about the world of ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ one of the most transformative and ground-breaking movies of the modern era.”
Buirski’s latest film, “A Crime on the Bayou,” tells the story of Gary Duncan, a Black man who was arrested as a teenager for lightly touching a white boy’s arm while trying to break up an argument. The film opens in select theaters nationwide June 18. “By Sidney Lumet” is among Buirski’s other credits. She founded Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and ran it from 1997-2008.
