https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/btl-12-8-2025.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n <\/p>\n
Welcome to another week of BEHIND THE LENS and this week it\u2019s all about Christmas as I welcome director\/co-cinematographer\/co-editor ADAM VOLERICH, talking about his feature directorial debut, DRINK AND BE MERRY, and director CELIA ANISKOVICH, who is filled with the Christmas spirit as she talks about her documentary, THE MERCHANTS OF JOY.<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s get that cinematic sleigh going with Adam Volerich and DRINK AND BE MERRY.<\/p>\n
At a struggling New York dive bar in the days leading up to Christmas 2019, Chet, a beleaguered bartender in a state of extended arrested development, must balance caring for his misanthropic, aging regulars – who have nowhere else to go, and rely on him for far more than pouring drinks – with his naive desires to muster some Christmas spirit. As Adam himself describes it – \u201cYou know this bar. Maybe you were a regular. Maybe you were just passing through. But you sat, and you sipped all the same. The Bartender treated you well. The Barflies bantered with each other. And the Jukebox was already playing someone else\u2019s song. Wood paneling. Dirty bathrooms. Cheap drinks. No food. Cash Only. It\u2019s a liminal space where the outside world exists only in the memories of those seated on the stools, and they\u2019re all doing their best to forget it. The only window out is a TV tuned to the wrong channel. It\u2019s warm. It\u2019s comfortable. It\u2019s cozy. That\u2019s how you remember it anyway. DRINK AND BE MERRY is set in the days approaching Christmas 2019, a few months before every bar in the country will close its doors indefinitely.” Neither Chet nor his regulars know if this will be their last Christmas together, but for them, every day is just another day, but under the prettiest of holiday wrappings.<\/p>\n
In this exclusive conversation, Adam talks about how his real-life experiences at the Assembly Bar in Queens inspired DRINK AND BE MERRY and how screenwriter Leon Winters put pen to paper to capture the lifeblood of a dive bar and its patrons. Set on Christmas Eve Day and Eve, the film was shot at the Elm Witch Pub in New Brunswick and looks extremely festive, as many dive bars do for the holidays. Jefferson White, best known as the beloved character Jimmy on \u201cYellowstone\u201d, stars as Chet, a bartender with complex emotions, who cares about his regulars while his own life has no clarity or cheer. A strong suit of the film is the visual grammar developed by Adam and co-cinematographer Jack Mannion with some fantastic imagery that ranges from sparkling ECU\u2019s to a B&W dreamlike sequence to night shoots of a post-closing time Chet walking the streets. That visual style emphasizes the contrast between the warm, nostalgic bar and Chet’s harsh, sparse apartment and the darkness and solitude of the night.\u00a0 Listening to him discuss the visual magic, including the production design, is enlightening.\u00a0 Adam also has much to say about his collaborative process, most notably between himself, Mannion, and co-editor Dominick Nero, and provides great insight into the challenges of transitioning from shorts to features.<\/p>\n
DRINK AND BE MERRY is available now on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/behindthelensonline.net\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/btl-12-8-2025-640x473.png\")
<\/p>\n