Jordan M. Smith: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…
Bill Ross: Richard Slotkin lectures on itunes. Terry Allen’s album “Juarez”. Dusty and Sweets McGee.
Smith: Tchoupitoulas seemed like a nod to the late documentary filmmaker Les Blank, chronicler of Americana of all shapes and sizes. You’ve mentioned that with Western you are also trying to approach the western genre of filmmaking through the lense of Americana. Did Blank, or any other artists/filmmakers influence you at anytime during the process?
B. Ross: Yes, Les’s spirit – both as a person, and as a filmmaker, has been an inspiration to us as documentary filmmakers, and as human beings. There’s a brief but great moment of him drinking a beer by his camera in his border film Chulas Fronteras. That said something to us. This isn’t just about making films its about life experience and being present in the moment.
Bill Ross: Richard Slotkin lectures on itunes. Terry Allen’s album “Juarez”. Dusty and Sweets McGee.
Smith: Tchoupitoulas seemed like a nod to the late documentary filmmaker Les Blank, chronicler of Americana of all shapes and sizes. You’ve mentioned that with Western you are also trying to approach the western genre of filmmaking through the lense of Americana. Did Blank, or any other artists/filmmakers influence you at anytime during the process?
B. Ross: Yes, Les’s spirit – both as a person, and as a filmmaker, has been an inspiration to us as documentary filmmakers, and as human beings. There’s a brief but great moment of him drinking a beer by his camera in his border film Chulas Fronteras. That said something to us. This isn’t just about making films its about life experience and being present in the moment.
- 2/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Film-maker behind intimate, rounded portraits of musicians including Dizzy Gillespie and Lightnin' Hopkins
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
- 4/12/2013
- by Tony Russell
- The Guardian - Film News
Documentary director best known for his unusual collaborations with German director Herzog died earlier today Les Blank, among whose directorial efforts is the British Film Academy-winning documentary Burden of Dreams, about the bizarre events surrounding the making of Werner Herzog's Amazon-set Fitzcarraldo, died in Berkeley, California, earlier today, according to an article found on the web site Deadline.com. Blank, who had been suffering from cancer, was 77. Pictured above: Herzog is the maddeningly obsessive star of the 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams. Near the end of the 1960s, Blank was directing industrial and promotional shorts in order to bankroll his i documentary shorts, including Chicago Film Festival winner The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1969) and God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1969), about the burgeoning "flower children" scene. Music and the cultural context encompassing it were frequent themes in Blank's work. Examples include the norteño...
- 4/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"Stand and Deliver," the 1988 film starring Edward James Olmos in an Oscar-nominated role as East Los Angeles math teacher, and Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" from 1992 were the latest Latino films added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.
That brings to 10 the number of films about Latinos, by Latinos or set in Spanish-speaking countries to be named to the vast depository dedicated to works that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant in the estimation of the Librarian of Congress.
With the 25 films announced this week, most notably "Forrest Gump," the Oscar-winning 1994 film starring Tom Hanks, the total number of National Registry Films is 575.
Can you name one other Latino-related movie on the list of films the nation's oldest federal cultural institution considers "cultural, artistic and historical treasures"?
Chulas Fronteras (1976), El Norte (1983), I am Joaquin (1969), Modesta (1956), The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-1936), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
That brings to 10 the number of films about Latinos, by Latinos or set in Spanish-speaking countries to be named to the vast depository dedicated to works that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant in the estimation of the Librarian of Congress.
With the 25 films announced this week, most notably "Forrest Gump," the Oscar-winning 1994 film starring Tom Hanks, the total number of National Registry Films is 575.
Can you name one other Latino-related movie on the list of films the nation's oldest federal cultural institution considers "cultural, artistic and historical treasures"?
Chulas Fronteras (1976), El Norte (1983), I am Joaquin (1969), Modesta (1956), The Revenge of Pancho Villa (1930-1936), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
- 12/30/2011
- by Ray Sanchez
- Huffington Post
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