In some ways a companion piece to SELTZER WORKS, our new film profiles the cutest boats on the waterways of New York Harbor, celebrating (as Seltzer Works does) a previous era in the city.

Check out the website for more info on screenings and how you can order the new TUGS mug!

Tugboats at the 2010 Great North River Tugboat Race and Competition

We are tickled like the seltzer bubbles in the back of your throat!

Thanks to our friends at Thank You Tote Bags for sending along!

During our Hot Docs screening in May, a wonderful food writer saw the film and was inspired to write a story about Magda, Canada’s OWN last Seltzer bottler. She interviewed us for the article which was first published in MacLeans and then The Atlantic picked it up. Twice! And the Brooklyn section of the New York Daily News wrote about us for one of our Rooftop Films Screenings.

The film is still playing at festivals around the country, check back on the Screenings page for more info.

And we were so excited to see one of our favorite movies, The Thin Man keeping the seltzer close by. This mug needs it to mix with his whiskey. “A Manhattan you always shake to fox-trot time”

We have been paired with festival favorite Edge of Dreaming and will air on Tuesday, August 24th at 10pm in New York. POV is picked up my most PBS stations across the country but check your local listing here.

We also had our first screening that Kenny and his whole family attended in New York City last night. The great Rooftop Films did a program of New York Non-Fiction on the roof of a high school in the Lower East Side. It was a beautiful summer evening and a perfect night to watch short films. Kenny got great questions following the screening and we got lots of wonderful feedback from the audience. Looking forward to another rooftop screening in July! Maybe we will try to get Kenny to bring some seltzer this time.

Kenny and his brother-in-law Irving, have been looking into other options for people who want that biting seltzer taste, but can’t be home for the delivery man or live out of a delivery zone. They found a comparable seltzer down in Argentina called Bariloche that comes in siphoned, recyclable bottles. Irv and Kenny gave as a bottle as a taste test and we loved it! Great bubble structure and really good fizz that retains its compisition through the life of the bottle. But you can’t beat the charms of the old bottles!

Just before our Stranger Than Fiction screening at the IFC Center this week, we stopped in somewhere for a can of the bubbly and spied this big display right up front by the check out. Looks like Dr. Browns is pushing out the Cel-Ray, once referred to as the ‘Jewish champagne.’ I don’t think they have a chance. For my money, its the Bariloche all the way.

There is Walter Backerman a true charecter with great seltzer stories. There is a great radio peice about him here. And Eli Miller whose truck is actually a station wagon, and who has been immortilized for generations to come in the children’s book The Seltzer Man written by Ken Rush. And of course the now infamous Ronnie Beberman who had a terrible accident on his route last year, but couldn’t wait to get back on the truck. (Ronnie’s hands are the ones you see stacking the crates in our film.)

Much has been written about these delivery guys and many of them are second or third generation. But who are the people around the country who keep the bottles filled?

There are only a few seltzer fillers (or works) left in the country. One that we have been especially interested in is the Pittsburgh Seltzer Works, they have just sourced equipment and a new truck from Rhode Island and there is nothing stopping them now! We have also read about Under Pressure in Seattle, who deliver on a bike! And the Seltzer Sisters in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

But, unlike the delivery guys who fill up with Kenny, most of these fillers operate their own delivery services. We have yet to find a place like Gomberg’s where all the delivery guys have their own routes and customers. Just like in the old days.

Ronnie’s Truck

The film screened at the Bloor Cinema, one of the biggest rep houses in Toronto and the place we used to go watch Rocky Horror Picture Show in junior high school! We had such a wonderful response at the screenings and lots of ‘foodies’ came out to see the program, including Sarah Elton, whose book The Locavore is taking Canada by storm. It seems Gomberg’s Seltzer is sustainable!

It was a great week and it just primed us for our next round of screenings including our New York premiere on June 1st!

Sharing the stage with (from right to left) Penny, Chris, and Lynn from Hot Docs

In the meantime, check out the limited-edition Hatch Show Print poster, and see the screening dates page for upcoming showings.