BY EMILEE KLEINS | Daily Hampshire Gazette | May 16, 2025
Actors Camryn Mi-young Kim, left, and Gary Gulman perform during production for the short film “Irving Berlin’s View of the East River” near the Connecticut River, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Hadley. STAFF PHOTO / DANIEL JACOBI II
There’s an inaudible moan among the cast and crew when director Sarah Knight cues the walk back down the path along the Connecticut River dike in Hadley to record another take after nearly an hour of running the same scene. The crew is behind schedule on the set of “Irving Berlin’s View of the East River,” and the beautiful scenery of western Massachusetts, the main setting of the short live action film, is working against them.
The sun is bright and beating down without shade from the budding trees of early spring. The only reprieve is a strong breeze, which dulls the microphones picking up lines from the actors and ambient sounds of birds and boaters on the river.
Director of cinematography Danielle Bryant and gaffer Rowan Lupton sweat through their sunscreen as they slowly step backwards at the same pace the actors walk forwards, careful to keep their one film camera steady. Knight is in full protective sun gear, complete with an olive-colored facial sunscreen mask and sun hat. Costume designer Sarah Goethe-Jones and makeup artist Kate Baisley keep their distance under sun umbrellas. Bags filled with a variety of makeup brushes, hair spray, combs, safety pins, and a pair of silver sneakers hang at their hips for any touch-ups between takes.
Knight promises a break to the 25 members of the cast and crew — as soon as the scene is finished — to keep morale up. But it’s not Knight who helps maintain their spirits. Instead, the cast and crew build each other up by cracking jokes, bonding over former productions, or even simply maintaining focus getting the perfect shot. Not one of the members of this indie, low-budget film dedicated hours working in the elements for the sole purpose of winning an Oscar, or, as discussed in the film, to rent an apartment on the East River like Irving Berlin. They simply love their art.
“It’s really a cinematic and thematic love letter to the area,” Knight said.
Adapted from a one-act play written by western Massachusetts local Richard McCarthy (who also contributes a monthly column to the Gazette), “Irving Berlin’s View of the East River” meanders through a conversation between middle-aged writer Matthew Cronin, played by Gary Gulman, and early-20s New York Times reporter Ariel Pierce. Pierce, played by Camryn Mi-Young Kim, has been asked by her editor to learn the story behind Cronin’s determination to spread his ashes in the East River. The conservation moves from professional to personal as they discuss the complexity of an artist’s feelings around the success of their career and the satisfaction that’s supposed to come with it.
Eventually, Matthew tells Ariel that he views Irving Berlin’s apartment on the East River as a symbol of his great legacy, and Matthew spreading his ashes along that very river is the closest to that version of success he will ever touch.