Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 7pm
How many times have you gone somewhere expecting a massive riot?
And if you did go, did you also expect to come away with cinematic gold?
That's pretty much what Chicago native Haskell Wexler did in '68 when
he decided to shoot footage of protesters outside the Democratic National
Convention. Already an Oscar-winning cinematographer for his work on
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, he set a fictional film about the ethics
of a TV news cameraman amongst the actual chaos in the city. In MEDIUM
COOL he used what was essentially a documentary crew (operating the
camera himself), and had the actors intermingle with real protesters
and police as all hell broke loose in Chicago. Other documentary footage
was repurposed and additional narrative scenes were shot to fill in
the gaps of the superficial plot, and Wexler used these elements to
walk the line between fact and fiction while addressing the political
climate of the times. Perhaps more than any other filmmaker, Wexler
is responsible for the shooting style used in films by directors like
John Cassavetes, John Sayles, and Kelly Reichardt, who all seem to have
taken his advice: "If your film can reflect areas of life where people
feel passion, then it will have genuine drama." Wexler
in person. (1969, 111 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
No comments:
Post a Comment