Breslin and Hamill

Guests at the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) screening of HBO’s Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists at the Carnegie Institution for Science were in a New York state of mind, courtesy of Amphora Catering. The 240 guests that included filmmakers, diplomats and journalists noshed on pretzels, tacos, hotdogs, toasted cheese sandwiches and popcorn prior to the screening and panel that followed with moderator Margaret Brennan of Face the Nation and directors Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy.

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About the film: “Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill’s brilliant, honest and courageous writing defined New York City journalism. For five decades, these colorful columnists and longtime friends spoke for ordinary people and brought passion, wit and literary merit to their reporting on their city and nation. Their writings probed issues of race, class and the practice of journalism that resonate powerfully today. Born and raised in working-class New York City neighborhoods, Breslin and Hamill were products of fractured Irish-American families. They rose through the ranks of reporting without formal training or college degrees. Sometimes working on competing newspapers, and sometimes working on the same publication, they became good friends who challenged and inspired each other. They were also swashbuckling, often controversial personalities whose TV appearances and comings-and-goings around town could be as entertaining as the stories they wrote. Filled with the humor and gusto they both personified, the documentary is a poignant look at two literary giants who epitomized New York during its last and greatest period of print journalism, whose pioneering influence still reverberates today.” HBO