“Why Farrell’s?” wants to tell the story of the nearly 90-year-old Irish pub in NYC
Farrell’s Bar and Grill in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn is set to be the focus of a new documentary “Why Farrell’s?” and the team of filmmakers are looking for support to get their project completed.
Read More: The enduring community of a Brooklyn Irish bar
On their fundraising page, which is hoping to secure about $24k for filming, the team says: “Farrell's Bar & Grill has been a town hall, a community center, an oasis, a time machine, a staple of a 'small town' in Windsor Terrace Brooklyn since it open in 1933 thanks to Eddie Farrell. This documentary will ask, and hopefully answer the question,…. Why Farrell’s?”
Farrell’s Bar in Brooklyn opened its doors just as the era of Prohibition in the US was ending. While scores of other bars and businesses in the area have come and gone in the following decades, Farrell’s has remained.
Director Jay Cusato told the Daily News: “Farrell’s has a certain mystique to it.
"The place has not changed. The theme (of the bar) has always been the same. Even the bathrooms are the same. So is its desire to help people who really need it.
“If you’ve been there more than once, you know there’s a warmth to this bar."
Read More: For one Brooklyn neighborhood, this weekend marks St. Farrell’s Day
In 2016, Pat Fenton, one of the film’s producers, wrote in the Irish Echo: “Farrell’s Bar is like a cultural museum of early Irish working-class Brooklyn. It contains what is left of the oral history of a generation. When you enter the front door you enter the past. The original hammered tin ceiling that our fathers drank under is still there, along with the long row of back-bar mirrors that held their images.”
Brooklyn native Kelly O'Connell similarly reflected in 2017 on the impact of Farrell's, and how the local St. Patrick's Day festivities are now known as 'St. Farrell's Day.'
You can watch a pitch trailer for “Why Farrell’s?” here:
To support the "Why Farrell's?" filmmakers, you can visit their Facebook or fundraising page.
Have you ever visited Farrell's in Brooklyn? Tell us about it in the comments!
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