Tag: Photography

SLIFF 2017 Review – FACES PLACES

FACES PLACES screens at Plaza Frontenac Cinema (Lindbergh Blvd. and Clayton Rd, Frontenac, MO 63131) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Showings are Thursday, Nov. 9 at 4:30pm (purchase tickets HERE) and Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3pm (purchase tickets HERE).

 

What a charmer! Legendary French film director Agnes Varda and muralist/photographer JR take us on the most appealing of road trips. Varda is a founder of the French New Wave avant-garde film movement still actively making films, while artist JR specializes in placing giant photographic images on buildings and other surprising outdoor locations. At the time the film was shot, Varda was 88-years-old and JR was 33, she’s a tiny woman while he’s a tall man, yet they make a perfect team is this often comic but also though-provoking exploration of rural France. In FACES PLACES (Visage Village), they travel around France meeting ordinary people, taking photos, and turning them into striking giant photo art works plastered on walls and other large surfaces.

The van this unlikely pair travel in looks like a giant camera, and serves as a mobile photo booth that prints out large posters suitable for plastering on walls. The van attracts attention and also adds a touch of whimsy for the project. Although Varda, a short, round older woman, and JR, a tall, thin young man, look mismatched, they are the perfect team for this project. As they roll along on this road trip, the filmmaker and the artist joke, tease, debate artistic choices, and talk about life, art, and memories. In their travels, they also meet an array of ordinary people who have their own unique and fascinating stories.

The film has a stronger narrative line than one might expect, and one has to credit the legendary Varda for that. The director’s skills remain intact and her eye and instinct for interesting story in unexpected places is unerring. The film is a visual treat throughout, with well-framed and scenic shot after shot.

The murals they produce use photos of people with a connection to the building or outdoor location where the image will be placed. The images embody some of the human history of the place but they also have a good dose of whimsy and playfulness. JR’s previous projects include close-ups of eyes on round industrial storage tanks and other startling images. A similar sense of playing with perception fills the images Varda and JR create together.

But it is the entertaining, thoughtful interactions between these two that make this film so appealing and enjoyable. The back-and-forth banter between the two is warm, amusing, and insightful, as the two agree and disagree on artistic choices. Both share personal stories and indulge in impulsive, playful adventures. JR’s respect and affection towards the legendary Varda is touching, like a grandson’s, but Varda’s warmth and encouragement towards JR is just as appealing. One gets the sense these two have been friends forever but in fact met shortly before filming started. Clearly, the two just clicked, and that translated to magic and fun on-screen.

Filled with surprising and unexpectedly beautiful images of people and places, FACES PLACES is a perfect little gem of a film, a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, on the road with two fascinating and ever-curious people as they see what is around the next bend, in life and on the road. There is one word for this film: Wonderful!

 

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER – The Review

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It’s documentary time again, film fans! Now stop that groaning this instant! As you are well aware (if you’re a regular visitor to this site) docs aren’t dry, dull homework. They can be more entertaining than many fiction films and big studio blockbusters. And they can incorporate other film genres like this year’s Best Documentary Oscar winner 20 FEET FROM STARDOM which was a musical doc. Opening today is FINDING VIVIAN MAIER which is an art/mystery/doc hybrid, much as another recent Oscar winner, SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN,  which was a musical mystery. Not familiar with the work of Ms. Maier? In the last few years she has been lauded as one of the great street photographers whose work equals the great Diane Arbus. But here’s why she’s just be recognized now. Maier spent most of her life working as a nanny or a maid, first in New York City, and later in the suburbs of Chicago. The film tells how the beginnings of her fame really started with an auction as a young man was looking for vintage Windy City shots for a project.

That man is the film’s co-writer and director John Maloof who made the winning bid on a box of old photo negatives. Although none of the images suited his project, he was stunned by the beauty of the work. Eventually he purchased more negatives that were sold to others at the auction. Maloof found letters and receipts that connected him to a former employer of Maier who was about to toss out the contents of her storage locker. After rescuing the boxes from a dumpster fate, Maloof went through the thousands of negatives in color and black and white snapped from the 1940’s through the 1970’s along with several 16mm and 8mm home movies. Of course in addition there were clothes, souvenirs, and dozens of audio cassettes. Maloof contacted several museums and galleries about printing from the negs, but was politely brushed off. And so he turned to the world-wide web and posted some of the photos to his blog. The response was staggering and soon he put together a show of prints at the Chicago Cultural Center, which drew a huge adoring audience. But Maloof wanted to know more about Maier and begins interviewing the many families she worked for (including many adults she had helped raise). His research takes him across the country and across the pond to Europe as he tries to trace her roots and “find” this gifted artist.

Maloof and collaborator Charlie Siskel make this journey a compelling tale. They keep the film moving at a brisk clip and elicit wonderful responses from their interview subjects. Maier’s charges and bosses have endless stories about this eccentric woman, but many still remain blithely unaware of her background, including a major TV celebrity. It seems that Maier kept her past hidden away much like her photo work. This may be best heard on an exchange between her and one of the kids recorded on an audio cassette (” So, tell us your name, child.” “But, what’s your name?” “I am the ‘mystery woman’!”). In one segment, even a state worker is frustrated when going through old census forms about the Maier family. Eventually the funny anecdotes give way to a portrait of a dark-natured soul. The “pack-rat” gives way to a obssessive hoarder. One of her charges even reveals incidents of abuse. The film is an excellent investigation of a woman thought to be just a simple-minded laborer and care-giver, but who is now known world-wide for her artistic endeavours. And in several shots, mixed up with the beautiful and grotesque, is the woman herself, reflected in mirrors and store fronts, usually wide-eyed, concentrating, observing and recording life all around her. We may not fully understand Maier by the film’s end, but we’re haunted by those unforgettable images of those captured ghosts from the distant past. I hope cinema and art fans find this fascinating film.

4.5 Out of 5

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

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SXSW Review: MARWENCOL

One of the most fascinating things about how a child experiences the world is that everything is new, amazing and curious. Children live in the world with a sense of wonder about everything, great and small. Children have no limits to their imagination and inhibitions about their interests and pleasures. Unfortunately, this is the most valuable part of childhood we lose as adults.

Imagine if, as an adult, you found yourself thrown back into this state of mind. Now, realize that you still maintain an adult’s mind, an adult’s sense of maturity and sense of responsibility. How does an adult cope with having relearned everything after a tragic event leaves you on the cusp of death?

Jeff Malmberg has made a fascinating and powerful documentary in MARWENCOL. The movie introduces the audience to a man named Mark Hogancamp, tragically attacked by five teenagers as he left a bar, beaten to within inches of his life and left for dead. Mark survived, but suffered severe brain damage, forcing him to relearn everything needed to live unassisted.

As truly compelling as this sounds, it is merely the back-story. MARWENCOL delves into Mark’s life having already redeveloped his ability to speak, write and perform all the basic daily tasks that allow him to live almost fully independent. The film details Mark’s experience through his own words, recounting his journey to recovery.

MARWENCOL refers directly to the name Mark has given the 1/6 scale miniature town he has created as a tool to help himself reconnect with his imagination and better understand the world around him. Mark uses old school GI Joe and similar action figure toys as well as Barbie dolls to invent his character inhabiting the town on Marwencol, all of them based upon and named after people he holds dear in his own life.

The physical manifestation of Marwencol exists in Mark’s backyard, but the story evolves from Mark’s imagination. Set during WWII, Mark’s creates heroes and heroines, love interests and lives out his passions and fantasies through his make-believe world. His real-life aggressors are represented by the German SS, seeking out the mysterious town of Marwencol.

The film vividly captures the heart and mind of Mark Hogancamp, a man who is no longer himself, neither better nor worse, but different. As tragic as Mark’s story is, MARWENCOL is also an extremely captivating and inspiring story of a soul rising from the ashes of violence and accomplishing something wonderful. While Mark creates and maintains the town of Marwencol for himself, his work becomes the attention of interested people in the art world and gains notoriety.

The intricacy and detail Mark puts into Marwencol is astounding. The stories he creates are directly derived from his past and the present in which he translates into his world. Women in Mark’s life play an integral role in Marwencol, especially his three loves. Through his imaginary town, and through this documentary, Mark opens up to the audience and reveals aspects of his personality and psyche that most of us would be reluctant to share.

Heart-warming, funny and often delightfully bizarre, MARWENCOL is the rare documentary that feels like a narrative film, telling a story almost stranger than fiction. Mark’s story is unbelievably unique. The audience is permitted to see all sides of Mark, a man no longer held back by the social restraints the rest of us cling to so willingly. MARWENCOL won Jeff Malmberg the Best Documentary prize at SXSW 2010, where the film premiered.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars