Claire is...

A few amazing documentaries I’ve watched recently…

Cracked Actor

IMDB calls this a look at Bowie’s drugs years but I think this is misleading.  He’s not seen taking drugs and doesn’t talk about them; it’s not a documentary about drugs.

It’s a documentary about a very confused, creative, exhausted artist who feels the demands of alter egos, superstardom, his public and critics.

It’s on the list of the 50 best documentaries and if you’re a fan of Bowie there’s lots of great songs playing pretty much over the entire thing.  It’s not recommended if you’re used to very easy documentaries that covers the whole of someone’s life and inane details about their hometown etc.

The World According to Parr

Another ‘Imagine’ documentary brought to us by Alan Yentob (who is in my eyes a genius and I was lucky enough to stand a hairs breath from him at a Bruce Nauman exhibition).

In my eyes one of the most beautiful things about the imagine photographers series is that the shots they chose to transition with are in the style of the photographers photographs that at some points you think you’re looking at another example of their work.  It’s a beautifully simple motif that I noticed in this documentary, and the documentary about Vivian Maier. 

I am a fan of Parr’s and have been since College.  I think the thing I admired about him was his collecting nature, the way he saw a connection between to things or in a certain place and brought them together.  The way he has tunnel vision for kitsch teacups and awful wallpaper.  From this documentary I found out he actually collects wallpaper, and all kinds of ephemera with photographs on them, from royal family tea trays to Sadam Hussein watches.  I admire him because of the sheer amount of photographs he takes with such a keen and interested eye.

Werner Herzog: Beyond Reason

Another Imagine documentary, another amazing character.  This time not a photographer but a filmmaker and someone who I admire not for their eye but for their imagination, determination and coolness in dramatic circumstances.  Grizzly Man was the first film I watched by Herzog and I was blown away.  Certain films just get me, they pull me in, they make me feel as if I was there and they give me a great amount of inspiration despite not being related to anything I was doing at all.  Werner Herzog for me is the king of the sound bites, after being shot, during an interview for the culture show; he claimed it was not ‘a significant wound.’  He made a bet that if the filmmaker (then unknown) Errol Morris finished his first film he would eat his shoes.  Obviously he did and Herzog ate his shoes in front of an audience at the premiere.  When asked what it was like he said, ‘It is easy to eat a shoe, it doesn’t do any harm to anyone.’

I have boundless admiration for Herzog as a filmmaker, an artist and a man and I would urge you to watch this amazing documentary whether you are a fan or he is unknown to you.  A fascinating watch.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens

For me one of the most amazing things about this documentary is the fact that Hunter S Thompson agreed to be interviewed for it.  I had no idea that he worked with Leibovitz, but of course they were at Rolling Stone together.  They were not particularly keen on each other either.  I’m not the biggest fan of Leibovitz’s work generally but some of are images are iconic, there’s absolutely no denying it (John and Yoko for example.) 

Leibovitz’s work is a complete contrast to the other photographers’ work I’ve been researching lately.  Parr and Maier are street photographers who snap on the go, they catch things that are real and instantaneous.  Leibovitz styles and sets up a lot of her photographs (especially the celebrity portraits.) In this documentary you do get to see a different side to her work, such as the photographs of fans at the concerts of The Rolling Stones (she went on tour with them for the entire tour, usually unheard of with photographers.) 

Leibovitz’s work is very contemporary, she portrays pop culture in whatever era she’s working in and that is culturally important.  I think her work will be more classic as time goes on. This is an interesting documentary and I found it particularly interesting as I am a fan of magazines and editorial work and there is an insight into that industry.

Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures

Vivian Maier, infamous now, had been taking photographs, thousands and thousands of them throughout her life but was not discovered until after her death. A nanny, who in her spare time took amazing photographs of people on the street, the children she looked after, markets, buildings, trains and herself.  Yet she never showed these to anyone one and they were found by accident when she could no longer afford the storage bills on the containers where the thousands of films, negatives and prints were all kept.  It was only after someone posted some of the photos that they bought at auction on the internet that interest arose in the nanny’s pictures and now they are selling for thousands of dollars each.

I admire Miss Maier’s bravery at encountering people in the street, sometimes in bad neighborhoods and taking their photo so close up and almost invading their privacy.  She, despite being an outsider and seemingly rather lonely, must have had some real guts.