This film celebrates the mystery and magnetism of the renowned photographer W. Eugene Smith during his 1957­–1965 residence at a scruffy loft in Manhattan. Jazz musicians—notably Thelonious Monk—flocked to Smith’s place to make music: “They would start to play and then the building would shake. . . . People would hear about it and drop in.” Smith’s photographs from the fourth floor of 821 Sixth Avenue suggest, however, that he was somehow trapped in his living quarters, aiming his camera either at his visitors or at the street below. His obsessive picture making was rivaled only by his mania for audio recording, and the film provides a guided tour through Smith’s prolific archives of sounds and pictures. Interviewees contextualize Smith’s passion for recording and preserving and explain how Smith distanced himself from his family and his earlier career at Life magazine. The story contrasts Smith’s deliberate isolation with his engagement in collaborative exuberance personified by jazz and jazz musicians.  NK