Vintage movies available on DVD1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMore vintage movies have come to DVD this week, including one from a new manufacture-on-demand site devoted to small, off-the-beaten-path art films.
“And Now, Miguel” (Milestone, 1953, b/w, $29.95). Joseph Krumgold’s book of this title won the Newberry Medal for excellence in children’s literature in 1954, but it sprang from his film of the same title made a year earlier for the State Department. (It was also adapted as a Hollywood movie in 1966.)
This sweet, thoughtful hourlong semi-documentary was filmed in Las Cordovas, N.M., at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. From the voiceover narration by 12-year-old Miguel Chavez (the film itself is a pantomime with some sound effects), we learn that his one desire is to join the men in his family as they take their sheep into the mountains for the annual summer grazing. And when he prays to the village’s patron saint, a way opens for him to get what he wants – but it comes laced with irony, putting into perspective the adage about being careful what you wish for.
Other documentaries available from Milestone-On-Demand are “A Day on the Grand Canal With the Emperor of China” and “Dziga and His Brothers: A Film Family on the Cutting Edge.” The $29.95 price is reduced by 20 percent for those who go to www.milestonefilms.com or phone Milestone (800-603-1104).
