From Explore Brooklyn
Peter Crosby is the Brooklyn filmmaker behind such documentary shorts as Friends of Firefighters (featuring Steve Buscemi) and the award-winning The Oyster Men. His latest film, “Lenny’s Garage,” is a profile of Leonard Shiller, a lifelong resident of Brooklyn who has a Gowanus garage full of 58 classic cars, vintage bikes and motorcycles, and other memorabilia.
The gorgeously photographed film is a rare opportunity to peek inside his garage, the former home of the California Pie Company. His classic car collection includes a 1929 Durant rumble-seat coupe, a 1951 Hudson Pacemaker, a 1979 New York City checker cab and a 1965 Ford Good Humor Ice Cream truck. This isn’t the Smithsonian, though — Schiller keeps the garage jam-packed with car parts and likes to get his hands dirty.
“What I really enjoy is being here and figuring what’s wrong with one of the cars, and actually being able to fix it with my own hands,” he says. “When I had the ’36 Chevy I actually took the whole engine apart and rebuilt it, and I enjoy that kind of work. I find it therapeutic.”
Schiller is the president of the Antique Auto Association of Brooklyn, a club that often participates in local street fairs and parades. “Lenny’s Garage” was chosen as a Staff Pick by Vimeo
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