(L-R) David Berger, Kate Hirson and Holly Maxson

David G. Berger and Holly Maxson
Producers/Directors

KEEPING TIME is the first film for both Berger and Maxson. Both had long relationships with Milt Hinton, whose profound impact on their lives inspired them to make this documentary. Berger's four-decade relationship with Hinton began in 1955, when he was a 15-year-old aspiring bass player who approached Hinton for lessons. Four years later, Berger traded the study of the bass for a major in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. But during every school break, he was back at the Hintons’, recording the stories he heard from Hinton and his colleagues. At the same time, Berger began working with Hinton's photographs, and whenever possible, he recorded Hinton's recollections about taking particular images. After completing his doctorate in sociology, Berger became a professor at Philadelphia's Temple University in 1968, a position he held for 30 years. In the mid-1970s, he and Milt began a 14-year collaboration culminating in the publication of two books, Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton (Temple University Press) and OverTime: The Jazz Photographs of Milt Hinton (Pomegranate ArtBooks).

Twenty-five years ago, Berger hired Maxson to assemble the photographs for Bass Line. Maxson had a degree in photography and printmaking from the Tyler School of Art and, at the time, was studying paper conservation while working at the Philadelphia Historical Society. She understood the historical significance of Hinton's photographs but was concerned by how badly they were catalogued and stored. Since that time, she has worked to preserve and catalog the photographs, which now number more than 60,000. Her work was instrumental in the creation of KEEPING TIME, which relies on Hinton's photographs of his world to tell his unique story.

Because Berger and Maxson were new to filmmaking, they hired veteran film editor Kate Hirson to work on the project. Although Hirson had never met Milt Hinton, she got to know him by living with countless video and audio interviews, archival footage, his photographs and the stories Berger and Maxson recounted.

Kate Hirson
Director/Editor

KEEPING TIME marks Hirson's debut as a director. A veteran film editor, she began her career with the pioneers of cinema verité, David and Albert Maysles, working on everything from their film on the Beatles (The Beatles in the USA) to their film on the artist Christo (Running Fence). She has always been particularly interested in working on documentaries about artists—whether they were painters (14 Americans, Directions of the 1970s), dancers (Dancing!) classical musicians (Playing For Real), or film directors like Arthur Freed (Musicals, Great Musicals), Busby Berkeley (Going Through The Roof), which aired on the PBS series American Masters and Clint Eastwood (Out of the Shadows, which also aired on American Masters). She recently received an Emmy Award in editing for Judy Garland—All By Myself.

View film credits >>