A half century after its release, Midnight Cowboy remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With beguiling performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's brilliant screenplay, and John Schlesinger's fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
But this is not a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy: it is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece; New York City in a troubled time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era. Featuring extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, director Nancy Buirski illuminates how one film captured the essence of a time and a place, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity.
Nancy Buirski is currently directing, producing and writing A CRIME ON THE BAYOU. She was the Director/Producer/Writer of THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR (2017) that had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American Premiere at the New York Film Festival. It was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Special Prize for Human Rights at the 74° Venice Biennale, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary Film and nominated for a Peabody Award. Numerous festivals in U.S and abroad; repped by The Orchard, TV broadcast on STARZ/HULU. Buirski is the Director/Producer/Writer of BY SIDNEY LUMET (2015; American Masters), World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Numerous festivals in U.S and abroad. Repped by FilmRise. She is Director/Producer/Writer of AFTERNOON OF A FAUN (2013; American Masters), World Premiere at the 51st New York Film Festival, International Premiere at the 64th Berlinale and record-breaking U.S theatrical release with Kino Lorber. She is Director/Producer/Writer of the Oscar shortlisted, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning THE LOVING STORY (2011; HBO) and a Producer of LOVING by Jeff Nichols. A CRIME ON THE BAYOU (dev. HBO) with THE LOVING STORY and THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR form a documentary trilogy addressing historic roots of racism and the brave voices who fought against it. She will direct TANNY, a narrative version of AFTERNOON OF A FAUN and ENDANGERED, an animated feature based on the award-winning novel of the same name
