Film discussion: Cameraperson
Where then, as the philosopher asks, are we to look for comfort, meaning and connection in our lives?
Easy. The Music Hall. And specifically the Music Hall Loft on Tuesday night, where we will be discussing Cameraperson, a documentary memoir by a woman who has been the cinematographer on some of the best documentaries of the past 25 years. Kirsten Johnson, the cameraperson of the title, has been behind the camera for Citizenfour, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, The Invisible War , and Derrida and 42 others.
She has been in war zones and poverty zones and scenes of great disasters and outrages. And while she hasn’t been the director of those previous films, she has been the person who had to stand there pointing the camera in scenes of chaos and danger. And both the opportunity to bear witness and record these scenes and her inability to help the people she was filming have left a mark.
Johnson was initially a reluctant participant in this film, but once she got the bit in her teeth, she took to her new role as the director of her own story with true commitment. She uses the scenes she has recorded over the years to show how image makers and their subjects share both a bond and a gulf of separation. She’s a very thoughtful person, and she uses a boxing match, a Nigerian midwife, footage of her own mother and other scenes to ask her questions and give her answers about what it means to take a camera into the world.
Critics have been uniformly positive about Cameraperson, praising the power of the images and the skill of the movie’s construction. They call it mesmerizing, profound, and beautifully put together. And when Metacritic totaled up its metascore for the movie, it came out with a rating of 86, making it one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.
I don’t really know quite what to expect from Cameraperson. But I know that when that many critics pour that much praise on a movie, I want to see what they’re talking about. And I think it might give you a welcome respite from the holiday madness. Join me to find out.
We’ll get together at 7:00 in the Loft, let the movie talk to us and then do a little talking ourselves. I hope to see you there.