WFA 2021 Home Schedule Explore the Film Guide Education Parties News+Reviews GET TICKETS
One documentarian, who captured the devastating impact that Covid-19 had on the lives of New York’s hospitality workers as it was unfolding, is ready to share his footage with the world.
By Lianna Albrizio
See the feature-length documentary Last Call: The Shutdown of NYC Bars on Saturday September 25 @ 12:00 PM at Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street) as part of Documentary Day at New York City’s 10th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival. Tickets now on sale!
In an hour-long documentary Last Call: The Shutdown of NYC Bars, director Johnny Sweet tells the story of the closing of the now-shuttered Sparrow Tavern in Queens and its family of employees who were among the tens of thousands of people who lost their jobs following the virus’ wrath. Right before the making the film, the widespread, mysterious disease also claimed the life of producer Jasmine Rao’s father. He was one of 4.3 million people who succumbed to Covid-19 out of a worldwide total of roughly 194 million cases.
In dealing with the grief of his passing, Last Call became a passion project for Rao that not only served as a creative distraction that kept her busy, but a film she felt served as a tribute to her dad and all the lives lost in this historical pandemic.
“It was very difficult to do,” recalls Rao, “because this was happening to all of us and we’re all going though our own things. “We felt this is so big, so crazy, so terrible and a once-in-many-lifetimes event that we can’t help but capture it and see what it was like for people.”
Flashback to April 2020, when Sparrow Tavern in Astoria was forced to shutter its doors when the nation was on lockdown; it left its bartender, Jena Ellenwood, a longtime staffer and Queens resident known for her bubbly personality who loved her job, out of work for the first time since she moved to the so-called City of Dreams over a decade ago in search of a life for herself. Circa 2010, fresh from graduating The New School in Manhattan with a major in performance and creative writing, she sold her car and was bound for Queens where she took a bartending job at The Sparrow Tavern. The 29th Street pub was for adults what the public library is for a child: a happy place to network and share ideas. It was also what Ellenwood described a “dark, rock ’n’ roll bar” that she “fell in love with” over a plate of French fries and a draft brew right before she decided to make it her second home. (It was also where Sweet met his wife.) Before the pandemic closed the tavern, the atmosphere and kinship between employees was likened to that of sitcom “Cheers.” Ellenwood even affectionately called one of her colleagues her bar spouse.
Willie McIntyre Jr., a bartender at neighboring bar Diamond Dogs, also known by his stage name, Rapper Skech 185, called the neighborhood bar a “third place” in between work and home in which there existed a leveling of status where everyone gets treated the same. The neighborhood bar wasn’t just a place to watch the football or hockey games over beers with the crew, but a place, one teary-eyed bar owner interviewed said, was an “oasis” for families took refuge while loved ones were sick in the hospital.
When the pandemic shuttered these havens, it abruptly and involuntarily shut a precious chapter of the hospitality workers’ lives they didn’t want closed. What had been years of joy and friendship was now eclipsed by a dark cloud of anxiety, financial difficulties, isolation, and apprehension that only the creativity of these workers’ minds could help them out of. In the midst of New York City’s darkness, the documentary begs the question, “Could the spirit of the city that spawned foremost artists such as Blondie, A Tribe Called Quest and The Notorious B.I.G. prevail over the heart-wrenching juggernaut of Covid-19?”
Lianna Albrizio: When the pandemic first surfaced, what were you doing, where were you living, and at what point did you up and decide to make this movie? Obviously, this film wasn’t exactly planned out.
Johnny Sweet: I still am living in Queens right in the epicenter of where everything happened. Most of my projects in sports and rap music got canceled or postponed. (One of which was a documentary about ‘90s hip-hop group Lost Boyz, postponed until 2022 or 2023). Instead of sitting at home and driving my wife insane, I remembered I had worked at a bar all four years in college, and some of my best friends came from working there, and it was the first community I thought of when everything hit.
Lianna: Why did you want to do a film about the bar scene in Queens of all places during the pandemic? How did you recruit these bartenders? Did you know some of them personally?
Johnny: A mutual friend introduced me to Jena. She was pretty stressed out; I could tell she was open, honest and courageous off the bat. When she agreed, I got to know her coworkers.
Lianna: How did they feel about doing this documentary?
Johnny: They wanted to talk. They felt they were getting screwed over and they had every right to feel that way. Hospitality was one of the industries that didn’t get bailed out. They don’t have a strong union or lobbyist like banks or oil industries. They’re the little guys.
Lianna: This film is very poignant in that a sad reality is compounded by another sad reality. Many of the people in this film speak of coming to New York with little money and trying to make a life for themselves and finding a family working at these bars and then that joy is stolen from them by the pandemic. It’s been said that bars are a steady income for starving artists as they pursue their artistic dreams in a city that birthed many great artists such as Blondie and Biggie Smalls. It’s also been said that great art stems from tragedy and that in the midst of difficulty lies opportunity. How do you feel the artistic spirit has prevailed in NYC despite the permanent closings of some of these New York fixtures?
Johnny: The art scene is punching back with very aggressive force. That’s who New York is. In the ‘70s when the city was broke, what sprung out of that was punk and hip-hop, now the most popular genre in the world. Culturally, I think it’s too early to tell. The creative expression in NYC, you’re not going to be able to supplement that. I think the pandemic poured gasoline on a bunch of fires within artists. I don’t know what permanent art form will come out of that … maybe another form of EDM or something different than that, but something will come out … it always does.
Lianna: What was the biggest life lesson you took away from the telling of this story and what transpired the past year and a half?
Jasmine: My dad passed away when Johnny came to us with the film idea. I was shook. I wasn’t sure if I could edit the film due to the subject matter. But grief comes out in different ways for different people. I used it as an outlet to help me get through it. It shows how adaptable humans are and how much stronger we think we are. The things we thought were a big deal before are not so terrible now. I’m still alive.
Lianna Albrizio
Lianna Albrizio is a seasoned journalist and editor passionate about covering all facets of the arts from film to books, music and food. She loves interviewing people and spreading the word about their amazing work for all to enjoy.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 10th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs September 23-October 2 2021. Check out a jam-packed lineup of 91 fantastic films in all genres from 28 countries, including shorts, features, Animation, Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Documentary and Music Video. Hollywood might ignore women and people of color, but Winter Film Awards celebrates everyone!
Winter Film Awards is an all volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the NY State Council on the Arts.
