THE VILLAGE VOICE, Greenwich Village, New York, Jan. 27, 1960  Page 8, and continuing on to pg. 10 of this significant issue features Jonas Mekas’s famous "Movie Journal" column, containing a blistering, historic review and manifesto attacking visionary director John Cassavetes for his controversial decision to radically re-edit his debut film, Shadows.
Also present is an article on Samuel Beckett's "Act Without Words II - A Mime Play", "C for Colored, J for Jew", by Ed McLean, and a satirical cartoon by Jules Feiffer. Another interesting tongue-in-check article by Max Shulman regarding college dropouts.

The significance of this issue lies in its legendary connection to the birth of American independent cinema. Cassavetes originally shot a raw, heavily improvised first version of Shadows in 1957, but following a poor reception, he reshot roughly half of the film to release a more conventional "second version" in late 1959. In this January 27, 1960 column, Mekas—the influential vanguard of avant-garde film criticism—publicly declared the original, unreleased first version a "frontier-breaking masterpiece," fiercely arguing that Cassavetes had ruined his own work by making it look too much like a commercial Hollywood movie. Mekas's passionate critique ignited a legendary, decades-long search by film archivists and historians to locate a surviving print of that mythical first cut, which was considered completely lost to time until it was miraculously recovered in 2004. This issue stands as a holy-grail artifact documenting a defining ideological battleground at the dawn of modern independent filmmaking.

Other news, Greenwich Village lifestyle articles, theatrical reviews, and contemporary period advertisements are found throughout.

Complete issue, even toning, in very nice condition.

Provenance note: These issues come from The Village Voice's own collection - part of their in-house issues used to create their digital & photographic archives. 

Alert: Issues of The Village Voice often contain articles and/or photos which some consider offensive and are certainly inappropriate for children. Please purchase with discretion.