Beyond The Duplex Planet

In the 1970s, recent art school graduate David Greenberger took a job at a Boston nursing home and began striking up conversations with its elderly residents. But instead of making the usual polite small talk, he’d offer prompts like: “Which do you prefer, coffee or meat?” “What is embarrassment?” and “Tell me about Batman.” The resulting interviews became The Duplex Planet, a cult zine that transformed peculiar back-and-forth into something unexpectedly philosophical and profound, but more than anything inspired and awakened a sense of community among those who had been deprived of it, simply by offering them someone to talk to. Now entering old age himself, Goldberger reflects on a lifetime spent listening to others and preserving voices often ignored. Blending archival material with Greenberger’s recent spoken word recordings and performances, and appearances from admirers including Penn Jillette, filmmaker Beth Harrington’s warm portrait of an unconventional artist is a moving meditation on aging and human connectivity, and a celebration of true, everyday outsiders and underdogs. —Jesse Knight

West Coast Premiere

Beth Harrington is an Emmy-winning independent producer, director, and writer based in the Pacific Northwest. Her work explores American history, music, and culture. Her documentary Welcome to the Club – The Women of Rockabilly earned a Grammy nomination in 2003 and reflects her longstanding focus on music history. A former musician, she was a member of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers. Her feature The Winding Stream – The Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music (2015) premiered at SXSW and screened at more than 30 festivals internationally. Harrington has also produced and developed programming for public television, including WGBH and OPB.