Short Film: The Day of the Painter

User question: "In the late 1950's or early 60's, a movie maker created a short film called The Day of the Painter. He wrote, directed, produced and acted in the cast of two film.

On your web page at The Day Of The Painter you showed a short from 1960 directed by Ezra R. Baker. But, when I tried to order a video of it through the Buy the Video! option at that site, the only short offered was one from 1980 - surely not the one that I want.

The setting in the short that interests me was a wharf on a muddy cove somewhere in New England. The only building on the wharf was a small shack in which 'the hero', a would be Jackson Pollack, kept his painting equipment - a wheel barrow, many gallon cans of paint, and various off-beat painting implements (a cane, an eggbeater, and .. you get the idea).

With an aire of professionalism from start to finish, he brought a 4x8' slab of plywood down the pier and dropped it about 8 ft. down onto the mud. Then he dropped various colors of paint from the wharf, right out of the can, onto his 'canvas'. Climbing down and slogging in the mud, he further spread the paint with his implements. Finished, he brought the slab up onto the wharf and smoked his pipe while he let his work dry. He sawed the slab into picture size squares and moved them onto a low dock at the end of the wharf, then waited. A seaplane landed, pulled up to the dock, and a well dressed Frenchman got out, looked over the squares, chose one, loaded it into the plane, and took off. The painter threw the rest out into the water where they floated away. That was the end.

Do you have the video for sale with the theme I described above? If so, can I get a copy in VHS, DVD, or some other commonly available medium? What will it cost, what are the delivery times and costs, and how can I order it on line - by phone, or whatever method works? "

Our answer: "the short in our database is the short you described.

But as you surely found out, the link to buy the video is an auto-genereated link to amazon. On some products it returns helpful results, on others, like yours, it doesn't.

Well, the film in our database has won an oscar - that alone should keep it from being forgotten. But shorts are a difficult matter. I fear you won't get it so easy on DVD/VHS - and to make it all worse - we can't help you with it.

Anyway, we plan to release a few short film compilations in the future. And your hint on a great film from the past, is surely a recommendation for our selection. Thanks!"