Day: November 17, 2007

I’m interested in what you all think of this, not least because there is probably some experience of student films produced on a tiny budget on this blog. The only reference I can find to it here was a comment from Michael earlier this year about the problems getting the movie released because the songs used on the soundtrack had not been licensed. In any case, this was made by Charles Burnett (of To Sleep With Anger and Glass Shield) for $10K in 1977. It has only just been released on DVD and it is a revelation. Done in documentary style, in black and white, the camera just captures life in South Central LA, presumably contemporaneously, though there is a 1940s almost rural feel to many of the scenes. It is unlike any depiction of urban African American life I have seen (and of course The Wire is much on my mind right now). There is a joyousness on the part of the characters, especially the children who are playing in and on vacant lots, railyards, rooftops and so on, and Burnett shows a deep affection for his characters. It is just poor people working away on their lives (one of the best lines has a character actor explain that he is not poor because he gives stuff away to the Salvation Army). The explosion of films in the 1990s about South Central gang warfare seems a million miles away. The DVD comes with a commentary track and three other Burnett shorts, all worth watching. The first, dating from 1969 looks like a study for Killer of Sheep. Oh, and the soundtrack is incredibly good.

But my real question is: how can a film maker this good have made so few films of note? Apart from Killer and the two I mentioned above, it is a very thin resume including a fair amount of forgettable TV.

well, comrades, I’d like to pick your brains. It is time again for me to wrack my brains for a theme for my writing courses for next semester, and in my half-assed way I have come up with a title but no content. “Film and Global History”–how’s that for vague and overweening? anyway, what I want is a combination of readings (literary, essays, commentary) and films that explore the relations between recent global history and film, particularly films that might look at American experience from an international point of view. So far the only film I have decided on is the remarkable documentary (now available on DVD) The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On . any suggestions? I am wary of the earnest historical film (which many of them would love!)–say, those of the Schindler’s List variety–so I’d particularly like black comedies, absurdist farces about horrific events, obscure avant-garde exercises and squirm-inducing documentaries. if you know of readings and films that would work particularly well together, let me know.