Archive for the ‘documentary’ Category
Slow Motion Picture
The clip above is a good representation of its film, Sweetgrass (2009): slow, deliberate, and beautifully shot. The artistry is apparent, but the filmmakers, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, have the good sense to make the “story” subtle. As in this excerpt, the documentary is not narrated or prefaced or even introduced except through these [...]
In: beginnings, contemporary, documentary, environmental art, film, landscape, pastoral · Tagged with: documentary, Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, postaweek, sheep, Sweetgrass
Dreaming Man
You may not understand Cro Magnon man from Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), but you will understand something about the director and his preoccupations. Herzog’s new documentary shows us the inside of the Chauvet caves in southern France, where prehistoric paintings were discovered in 1994. Herzog was granted exceptional access to the fragile [...]
In: contemporary, documentary, film · Tagged with: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Chauvet, postaweek2011, prehistoric cave paintings, Werner Herzog
Dog Days
In honor of beginnings, the ’70s, and the recent passing of Sidney Lumet, I give you the first three minutes of Dog Day Afternoon. The film begins with New York City in motion, cued to the music of Elton John (of all people!). The camera sweeps down these city streets without lingering or pausing anywhere. [...]
In: beginnings, contemporary, documentary, film, gaze, street life · Tagged with: A.O. Scott, Dog Day Afternoon, Martin Scorsese, New York City, postaweek2011, Sidney Lumet, The Last Waltz, The New York Times
Old New England
In this Great Recession, we are constantly being reminded of the Great Depression. And when we think of the genre of Depression photos we tend to think of the migrant workers of the rural South and West, the food lines, and the close ups of human misery. But the Depression hit different parts of America differently, [...]
In: documentary, landscape, photography, seascapes · Tagged with: Jack Delano, New England, WInslow Homer
Close Quarters
Thomas Annan is best known for documenting slum conditions in Glasgow at the end of the nineteenth century. His photographs of the “closes” of the old city show the growing population, displaced from living on the land and recruited into factory work, squeezed into a new urban landscape. The buildings are literally close and Annan [...]
In: architecture, documentary, nineteenth century, photography, street life · Tagged with: Glasgow, Thomas Annan