LES BLANK IN MASSACHUSETTS
Legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank came to Massachusetts this summer, as the=filmmaker-in-residence for the Woods Hole Film Festival and as a presentation at the MIT Media lab under the auspices of Filmmakers Collaborative as well as Woods Hole.
Although his most famous film is BURDEN OF DREAMS, the documentary about Werner Herzog and filmmaking of the mad enterprise called FITZCARRALDO, Blank is more noted fr his more anthropoligical projects, as in LIGHTNIN HOPKINS, which he showed at MIT, or GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS, about California's garlic festivel, which he showed in Woods Hole. Tacitern, reticent, he is not a natural charismatic fgure, which is approp[riate for a filmmakers who puts his subjects before himself. Yet, in talking with him, and observing him talk with other filmmakers, he is remarkably open. Hew knows where he is in the great chain of being of the film industry. And, appropriately distrustful of film distributors, he chooses self-distribution, and, in many ways, has to sing for his supper by the selling of his DVSsIn some ways, to experience Les, is less to attend a master clasthan to sit in with his interactions with other filmmakers.
At age 71, he sat is the workshop given by animator Bill Plympton, and at Woods Hole, he was often seen engaging in conversatins with other filmmakers.
and , because Woods Hole is such a filmmaker friendly festival, Les fit right in.
At MIT, he showed some classic work, like WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOES, but, for me, it was the work in progress he showed on Ricky Leacock (who, appropriately, also finished his academic career at MIT) which struck me the most. Ricky is in his mod-80's now, but the work-in-progress that Les showed paralled the work in prograss that is still Ricky Leacock. In his mid-80's and battling cancer, Ricky is still using his camera as a means of discovering life's possibilities. And, by documenting that man, and acknowledging the implicit kinship that both have in their approach to filmmaking, so is Les.\
Filmmaking can be about recording evidence of the openess to life's possibilities. To the degree that Woods Hole, MIT and the Filmmaker's Collaborative enabled some of us to have acess to that, we should be grateful.
at age 71, he eu oth Ricky and Les
Although his most famous film is BURDEN OF DREAMS, the documentary about Werner Herzog and filmmaking of the mad enterprise called FITZCARRALDO, Blank is more noted fr his more anthropoligical projects, as in LIGHTNIN HOPKINS, which he showed at MIT, or GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS, about California's garlic festivel, which he showed in Woods Hole. Tacitern, reticent, he is not a natural charismatic fgure, which is approp[riate for a filmmakers who puts his subjects before himself. Yet, in talking with him, and observing him talk with other filmmakers, he is remarkably open. Hew knows where he is in the great chain of being of the film industry. And, appropriately distrustful of film distributors, he chooses self-distribution, and, in many ways, has to sing for his supper by the selling of his DVSsIn some ways, to experience Les, is less to attend a master clasthan to sit in with his interactions with other filmmakers.
At age 71, he sat is the workshop given by animator Bill Plympton, and at Woods Hole, he was often seen engaging in conversatins with other filmmakers.
and , because Woods Hole is such a filmmaker friendly festival, Les fit right in.
At MIT, he showed some classic work, like WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOES, but, for me, it was the work in progress he showed on Ricky Leacock (who, appropriately, also finished his academic career at MIT) which struck me the most. Ricky is in his mod-80's now, but the work-in-progress that Les showed paralled the work in prograss that is still Ricky Leacock. In his mid-80's and battling cancer, Ricky is still using his camera as a means of discovering life's possibilities. And, by documenting that man, and acknowledging the implicit kinship that both have in their approach to filmmaking, so is Les.\
Filmmaking can be about recording evidence of the openess to life's possibilities. To the degree that Woods Hole, MIT and the Filmmaker's Collaborative enabled some of us to have acess to that, we should be grateful.
at age 71, he eu oth Ricky and Les
