‘Chuck-will’s-widow’ [Trailer]

A Trailer of Jem Cohen’s new short film ‘Chuck-will’s-widow,’ based on a chapter in Sam Stephenson’s ‘Gene Smith’s Sink.’ It’s September 1961 and W. Eugene Smith has recorded, with the myriad reel-to-reel tape machines set up in the “jazz loft,” a mysterious mimic of a Southern swamp bird, whistled five stories down on the sidewalk of Sixth Avenue’s desolate flower district in the middle of the night. “There’s a chuck-will’s-widow out there,” murmurs Smith. Many readers have felt that this spectral chapter is the heart of Stephenson’s unusual book. His collaboration with Cohen is a lyrical marriage of artists and subject matter, including the obsessive Smith and isolated world in the middle of the city.

Added 30 Mar 2026