Gimme Some Truth doc festival
http://artthreat.net/2008/11/gimme-some-truth-doc-festival/
I'm writing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the Gimme Some Truth
documentary film festival. It's cold and snowy here and perfect
weather for snuggling up in dark rooms with media. While I'm here for
three days, I'm going to send a few Art Threat posts out, starting
with this one.
Yesterday myself and Tom Waugh spoke on a panel we put together on
the National Film Board of Canada's famous Challenge for Change
project - a government initiative that lasted throughout the
seventies and was mandated to use documentary film to engage
communities in the process of production and dissemination in order
to effect positive social and political change. Many of the 200 films
produced under the banner were considered quite radical because they
were funded by the state, and like the classic and powerful film we
screened after our presentation, You are on Indian Land (Ransen,
Mitchell, Starblanket 1967), ended up being highly critical of the state.
After our panel was finished the politics of copyright and creative
ownership were brought to the forefront during a special screening of
Les Blank's mystery masterpiece documentary from 1974. According to a
court order, Blank is only allowed to show the film if he is present
at the screening and if the film's title is not promoted publicly.
The small theatre at the Winnipeg Cinematheque was packed as Blank
introduced his rock-and-roll odyssey. We were then treated to a two
hour portrait of the counter-culture music "scene" in the American
south during the early seventies - complete with typical Blank
oddities fraying constantly from the central narrative thread
throughout the entire piece. Such divergent strands as an esoteric
"spaced out" artist painting a deep sea-meets-deep space mural on the
bottom of a pool; a snake slowly consuming a cute baby chick whole; a
man eating glass at an amateur parachuting contest; and lengthy
meditations on the sun reflecting on a lake all add to Blank's
inimitable distinct style and form. The film is about a rock star for
sure, and there are many sequences of live shows and studio
recordings that make this film the rock odyssey it is. There are also
many close-up shots of women's legs, stomachs, breasts, and some
conspicuous male-gazing camera work throughout. When I asked Blank if
this was symptomatic of 70s doc filmmaking he responded that he's
been accused of objectifying women before, but that he films what
he's "interested in." This response elicited an elated ovation from
the audience, which apparently didn't want to see the discussion
careen into critical engagement with Blank's work. This was
disappointing, as I find that despite Blank's utter brilliance as a
storyteller, shooter and editor - I find women are often "ornaments"
in his documentaries, the few that I have seen that is. Blank sold me
five of his most "political" documentaries later last night over
beer, and I hope to redeem this perspective I have of us his work,
after watching them all.
While Blank doesn't describe himself as a "political filmmaker," his
works touch on many political issues, ranging from food politics, to
the political economy of tea, to sub-cultures in the states, to
immigration and racial relations in the American south. This 1974
classic from the censored vault is one of his best works and its
absence from the publicly available catelogue of his work shows how a
litigative society can result in the strangling and silencing of
artistic works. And besides, LXXX RXXXXl, the rock star who is
homaged in the documentary, is in his seventies - time to move on and
release this important artistic rendering of American counterculture.
.
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