Faustus Bidgood goes to Brooklyn: NYC rep cinema picks up Newfoundland cult classic

Over the course of June, The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood was shown three times to audiences in a small New York theatre and according to an actor in the film, the film stands the test of time.

The film, a surreal comedy about a lowly bureaucrat and his fantasies of becoming president of an independent Newfoundland, was released in 1986 but it took eight years to finish on a shoestring budget. 

Actor Bob Joy, who played Eddie Peddle, the fictional minister of education, was on hand for a screening at Spectacle Theatre, a 36-seat cinema inside a former bodega.

"When you see it now, especially with an audience like last night, and you realize its strengths, you also see its irregularities," Joy — who is credited as Robert Joy in movies and TV shows like CSI: NY and Atlantic City — told CBC News.

"It was a work of incredible ambition and verve and experimental playfulness." 

After not having seen the film in years, he said it holds up well, though there are some rough edges.

"As I like to say, you know, we all hope that when our children are born that they have 10 fingers and 10 toes. And if Faustus was our child — and it kind of was — it had more than 10 fingers and 10 toes."

"Its features weren't all symmetrical, but it's kind of a genius child. And so that's what I came away with when I saw it."

The screenings kicked off when Joy's agent received a message from Spectacle Theater's programmer Marisa Shepard about the film, who was researching Canadian films and came across the film on YouTube and began looking for who had the rights.

Joy said he helped connect Shepard with Andy Jones, who played the main character and wrote and directed it with his brother, the late Mike Jones.

"We said, 'Oh my God, we'd be delighted for you to screen the film after all these years.' You know, 38 years after it was released. And that's how it came to happen. It's astounding," said Joy.

With a chuckle, Joy described the central figure, Bidgood, as a "kind of loser, mid-level government employee" and an "an unsuccessful human being, you might say."

It featured actors like the Jones brothers, Joy, Greg Malone, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Tommy Sexton, Dyan Olsen, Jane Dingle, Ron Hynes, Francis Colbert, Brian Downey, Bryan Henessey and Charlie Tomlinson.

Creating the film took several years and Joy said people stepped up to take on production and managerial roles, adding that he was the location manager, music director and arranged casting sessions.