Routine Pleasures

The documentary sets two subjects side by side. One is a model railway club. The club is in Pacific Beach, near San Diego. The members are mostly older men. They build a world at small scale. Track, stations and carriages come out of their hands. The work asks for patience and repetition. The second subject is a painter’s studio. Manny Farber is both a painter and a critic. He counts as the director’s mentor. The documentary describes his canvases. The two pursuits are looking at the same thing. Both carry a wish to build the past again. The images are in black and white. Jean-Pierre Gorin and Chester Culp appear in the eighty one minute documentary. It is a French, German, British and American production finished in 1986.