Biography
Michael Bavaro is a filmmaker and artist in the Greater Boston area. He is the owner of Digital Freeway, and provides creative strategy and digital production to clients.
For 25 years Michael worked in Hollywood, Washington, D.C., and New York City, where he created award-winning promos and main title sequences for Disney, NBC, and the American Film Institute; led in design development for the world’s first streaming video-on-demand system later known as Verizon Fios; and designed and launched websites for Miramax’s Talk Magazine and the 2002 GQ’s Men of the Year Awards, respectively.
Since returning to his Massachusetts roots in 2010, Michael has produced and directed two highly acclaimed documentaries about historical Boston icons: Rex Trailer and Filene’s Basement. Both films received local Emmy Award nominations, East Coast film festivals selection, and multiple airings on GBH/PBS and WBZ-TV.
By 2015, both Rex Trailer and Filene’s Basement were gone. That year, Michael was asked to film the activity of a group of advocates trying to save the Prouty Garden, a sacred healing garden at the heart of Boston Children’s Hospital.
After more than 10 years since filming commenced, a new documentary, A Thin Place, is in the final stage of completion. It explores the history — and ultimate dissolution — of the beloved Olmsted-designed Prouty Garden.
When Michael is not making documentaries, he is a freelance digital media consultant for the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. Michael is also the vice president of the Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters and a member of the Massachusetts Colonial Society.
DigitalFreeway.com
Films
Voices from the Basement (2010)
Role: Director
Voices from the Basement is a documentary film about Boston’s beloved 100-year-old icon “ the original Filene’s Basement by filmmaker Michael Bavaro and production partner, psychologist, Dr. Susan Edbril.
The film is a journey back to a time when the American Dream was accessible to everyone who walked through the doors of The Basement. The Brahmins of Beacon Hill stood in line with the waitresses from Durgin Park with equal access to the same high-quality, discounted merchandise for which The Basement is best known worldwide.
The film is a collection of stories told by the people who worked and shopped down there. Celebrities, politicians, employees, and loyal shoppers share their passion for this landmark institution that has been one of Boston’s most visited tourist attractions for generations. The history of Filene’s Basement is captured through newsreels, archival footage, vintage photographs and audio recordings.
The founders, Edward and Lincoln Filene, were two of the leading retail pioneers who helped shape many of the social and economic paradigms, from employee health care to the formation of credit unions. Throughout the course of production, the producers were witness to history as it transpired. With the closing of the downtown store in 2007, they were there to capture it all. Sadly, this monument of commerce remained a hole in the ground at the end of the film as Filene’s Basement filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors forever.
Rex Trailer's Boomtown (2005)
Role: Director
Relive an age of innocence, ‘WANTED’ posters, and live one-take TV as Jay Leno, Jimmy Tingle, Mayor Tom Menino, Steven Wright and more than 100 grown-up kids share their memories of ‘Rex Trailer’s Boomtown’ in this Emmy nominated documentary about Boston’s beloved TV cowboy and pioneer of children’s television.
On April 28, 1956 Boomtown premiered on WBZ-TV in Boston. Over the 20 years it was on the air, more than 200,000 kids visited the show live in studio and nearly 4 million watched from home. The documentary and archives are now part of the permanent collection at the Paley Center (Museum of Television & Radio) in New York City.
Total runing time is 62 minutes.
Stream the film below:
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