On five Tuesdays during February and March, Harbor Theater will offer a light lunch and a film from the impressive Merchant Ivory catalogue. Merchant Ivory was famed for their gloriously lush historical literary dramas, especially in the 1980s and 90s. The series kicks off with a documentary about this remarkable independent production company.

Tuesday, 2/4, 1 pm Merchant Ivory (2024, 1h 52m)

Merchant Ivory is the first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

“I screened this documentary out of a misplaced sense of duty. After all, the filmmaking team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory made a number of exceptional films over many years’ time, and Ivory is still going strong at age 95. Attention must be paid, and good work celebrated. . . . Not every documentary about filmmaking successfully dives beneath the surface as this one does. But then, few subjects are as rich, or as deep, as that of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. In short, they were one-of-a-kind. Make it a priority to catch this one.” – Leonard Maltin, LeonardMaltin.com