Les Blank and his Documentary Films
"One of the great living documentary makers of the modern day, Les Blank joins BYOD. After fifty years making incredible docs that showcase the human spirit through art, struggle and humor, Les Blank has a wealth of knowledge to share with Ondi and Vlad.
Mr. Blank takes us through his early days and his decision to pick up the camera, his jump to film making and dealing with subjects on the outside of society, to dealing with artists to find the human spirit. He spares few details along the way and let's us in on his life-threatening filming Herzog, from the jungle of South America on 'Burden of Dreams,' to filming the director famously eating his own shoe. Mr. Blank is still a brilliant artist and illuminating guide through the history of doc making."
(TheLip.tv)
"An American Treasure and Living Legend Les Blank and his Documentary Films", Episode 14 : BYOD: Bring Your Own Doc, Hosted By Ondi Timoner and Vladimir Radovanov for TheLip.tv.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Eraserhead Stories: David Lynch on the Making of His Famously Nightmarish First Film
"Not only does the documentary Eraserhead Stories offer as much information as you'll find anywhere on the making of David Lynch's first feature film, it has a few Lynchian qualities of its own. For almost an hour and a half, David Lynch sits down behind a microphone and reminisces about the six years his ragtag team spent putting the movie together. But he does it in black-and-white, in front of a curtain, smoking, like something out of an early-1950s television broadcast. The ambient dull roar of an ill wind appears, intermittently and inexplicably, on the soundtrack. Photographs flash by, supporting some of Lynch's inspiring, arduous, and bizarre recollections. Many of his stories deal with the nuts and bolts of bringing one's financially impoverished but creatively overflowing early movies into reality."
(Colin Marshall, 17 December 2012, Open Culture)
David Lynch (2001). "Eraserhead Stories".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Minister of Chance: a crowdfunded audio science fiction series
"The Minister of Chance is an audio Science Fiction Fantasy series in the tradition of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the best in radiophonics. It's free, and you get it by subscribing to the podcast.
The series is entirely funded by its listeners. We have very small budgets, and absolutely no money for publicity - which is why you haven't heard about it til now. You can help by telling everyone you know on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, any Sci-Fi or fantasy sites, reviewers you know, your mum...."
(Clare Eden, MoC Executive Producer)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
American Independent Cinema: Spike, Mike, Slackers, and Dykes
"John Pierson is one of the unsung heroes of the independent-film explosion of the last decade. Just ask him. A New York-based producer's rep, he was among the first to discover and help finance the debuts of such filmmakers as Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Richard Linklater, Rose Troche, and Kevin Smith. Pierson recounts these discoveries and describes the booming independent-film scene from the inside in his memoir Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, a book as personal and idiosyncratic as some of the films he has nurtured."
(Gary Susman, 1995, Phoenix Media/Communication Group)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Rob Nilsson: indie filmmaker and small format video feature pioneer
"Rob Nilsson pioneered small analog and digital formats and created a low-budget cinematic style called direct action. He established the Tenderloin Action Group (now called the Tenderloin yGroup) in 1990, a drama workshop for homeless people, inner-city San Francisco residents and professional actors. He was the first video maker to blow up small-format video to 35 mm film for international theatrical distribution. His work has screened at festivals in the United States and abroad, including Mill Valley, Toronto, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Locarno. Nilsson's work has been honored with numerous awards, including the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival (he was the first American Director to win both)."
(Media Arts Fellow)
Fig.1 scene from Rob Nilsson (1987). "Heat and Sunlight", Betacam SP to 35mm film transfer.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
