Although our Greenpoint streets are frequently littered with filming permits for Law & Order, Blue Bloods, and other cop shows, our neighborhood has only occasionally appeared on screen in the preceding decades (Going in Style and Street Trash being two prime examples).
Artist and independent filmmaker Lindley Farley filmed his debut feature, The Bulls’ Night Out, in Greenpoint in 1995. Farley, a Queens native, took inspiration from a New York Daily News story about Frank Malerba, a retired police detective who foiled a robbery in the Bronx.
The Bulls Night Out centers on four retired police officers who take matters into their own hands to defeat the local drug lords running amok. The movie’s cops are fictional, but real police officers played a big part in the filming process.
“In addition to the working and retired cops who directly worked on The Bulls’ Night Out, when we shot a scene on Nassau Avenue, working police from the 94th Precinct hung around while we filmed the scene and made sure nobody bothered us,” Farley told Greenpointers. “We had a strong producer who could negotiate anything, including getting the use of Park Place Bar on Russell Street for three straight weeks.”
While the filming process was fairly straightforward, the road to getting it onto the big screen was less so, a blend of what Farley says is good and bad luck, attempting to get it into different local film festivals (it won Best New Feature at the Long Island Film Festival in 1997).
Anthology Film Archives finally screened the film to the public in 2000, garnering the attention of Burt Reynolds, who apparently took an interest in doing a bigger-budget remake. The project ultimately fell through, for which Farley expressed some gratitude.
“Even though I made some option money, and an A-list movie would have certainly boosted my profile, the script they adapted was awfully un-P.C., with police brutality almost being celebrated,” he said. “That was not the point of our story, and something I wouldn’t have wanted my name attached to.”
Ultimately, Farley hopes the film can resonate with new audiences and said he has been flattered by the number of repeat viewers he has heard from.
“My theory has always been, if a movie isn’t worth watching 20 times, it probably isn’t worth making in the first place.”
Film Noir Cinema (122 Meserole Ave.) will host a special screening of the film on September 30, at 7 pm.