Before the concept of the local bar had devolved into the TV show Cheers and the subsequent Boston tourist trap, such places did indeed exist. One example was the Bosun’s Locker, a "bucket of blood" on Main Street in Nantucket that flourished in the ’60s but did not survive the quiet island’s transformation into one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in America.

Narrated by Russell Baker, local filmmaker John Stanton’s documentary echoes the easy give-and-take of a friendly tavern, featuring interviews with such locals as actor John Shea (uncredited) and journalist David Halberstam, who enjoyed the Bosun’s Locker in its heyday, when it was a microcosm of the cultural and political changes of the period. These patrons also reflect on the economic and social forces that spelled the end not only for the bar but for Nantucket as an indigenous community. Stanton doesn’t single out villains in this taut and melancholy short; he merely suggests that this last call is just one more passage for an island that geologists say will be swept into the sea in a few centuries. (60 minutes)