Spotted a riveting documentary at the Calgary Underground Film Festival, Janis - Little Girl Blue. The movie showed Janis' life - her childhood, her hellish school days, making it in the music business, and the end through interviews with people who spent time with her back then. Including interviews with lovers; some the source of the extreme pain and loneliness that she expressed so strongly in her performances. The most gut wrenching scene for me was an interview Janis did at her High School reunion. I felt so sad for the normally vivacious woman reduced to a shy lonely girl. Janis was asked about attending football games and she replied that she never went. "I was never asked," she quietly added.
Janis - Little Girl Blue inspired me to explore photos taken during the 60s. Highly recommend another documentary film, Monterey Pop, not so much for the filming but for the photo essay extras by magazine photographer Elaine Mayes. Other documentary photography of the time can be found in Joel Slevin's book, The Haight - Love, Rock, And Revolution : The Photography Of Jim Marshall. There is also an Official Jim Marshall website with his iconic photos of the era.
The Exposure Photography Festival is afoot with films, exhibits, and special events! My calendars are mapped out (with bright colors) with galleries that I plan to hit before the month is done.
But this weekend is cold, so instead of going out last night I started a photography movie marathon. Recently I discovered a webpage that lists 40 films that photographers should see. Some I found at the Library -- crazy Hold placing ensued. The first films to arrive were The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and One Hour Photo.
First, not really a Ben Stiller fan, but I really, really liked the music, the photography, and the story in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Walter (Ben Stiller) works for Life magazine just as the magazine is being dismantled into virtual Life online. Walter's job involves taking care of the negatives that photographers submit to the magazine; his favorites being by photographer Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn). Sean has sent the "quintessential" photo for the final cover of Life, negative #25. Walter can't find negative #25. Dull, unadventurous Walter, who tends to "zone out" into fantastic imaginative adventures, dares to travel to remote places like Iceland and Afghanistan to find Sean. My favorite scene is where Walter finds Sean stalking a snow leopard (ghost cat) in the Himalayans. Sean talks about finding the perfect photo opportunity and instead of taking the photo he chooses to bask in the moment. Very cool. BTW, the Bohemian world travelling photographer look really works for Sean.
The second movie, One Hour Photo, I almost didn't watch because I like Robin Williams. I've seen him do manic stand-up, TV comedy, and tons of his movies. I was hesitant about watching Robin do bad, or at least mentally unstable. In One Hour Photo, Robin plays a box store (SavMart, could be Wal-Mart) One Hour "photo guy" who gets a little too involved with one family whose photos he's been developing for 10 years. The movie speaks of the importance of photos in commemorating family moments. It also speaks of one man's loneliness and desire to be included in a family. Robin falling apart after being fired is captivating and fascinating to watch. There's no manic improvising as Robin tightly plays creepy. In the DVD extra features Robin and the director Mark Romanek talk about having to let Robin release his suppressed volcano in between takes.
It's interesting that the characters in both movies start off as dull, boring men who prefer to observe or imagine life rather than live it. Yet both movies end in very different places.
Years ago I saw a black & white Max Von Sydow movie called The Seventh Seal. One image of silhouettes dancing on a hill top, known as the dance of death, stuck with me. The image came to mind when I shot these wind turbines near Pincher Creek.
Which comes to mind a list that I've been thinking about creating for a while. A list of movies with photography that I have loved or been influenced by. You know, scenes where you stop paying attention to the movie and go "oooh."
Symbolism beautifully photographed, Melancholia (Google Images - IMDB - Favorite Image) is an end of the world sci-fi film. My favorite scene has the main character, who is clinically depressed, walking in her wedding dress, her legs dragged down by tree roots.
There are many beautifully photographed scenes in Black Narcissus (Google Images - IMDB - Favorite image), but my favorite would be the nuns praying before an altar.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - IMDB - Favorite image : the opening scene where they are ambushed in the cabin
Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End - IMDB - Favorite image : miles and a multitude of rock-like crabs lined up in rows on a white sandy plain.
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[Added April 4, 2014]
The Bang Bang Club is the story of four combat photographers in South Africa during the wars to end Apartheid. Based on actual photographers and events. Makes street photography look like a walk in the park.
Five Broken Cameras is a documentary about a Palestinian man who videotaped his village's resistance to Israeli occupation.
Fur, a kind of tribute to famous photographer Diane Arbus, imagines how Diane became a photographer of society's outsiders.
In Aa Dekhen Zara a photographer inherits his grandfather's camera. A camera that predicts the future. While not necessarily photographically inspiring the idea of a camera that shows you what will happen is kind of cool.
Fourteen years after being severely disabled in a magical performance gone wrong, a former magician petitions his government to allow him to commit suicide. Stunning cinematography throughout, but my favorite scene is the magic trick where he appears to slide down a light beam.
