A 1953 Coronet educational film about where ‘Silent Night’ comes from. Many will be already familiar with the story. But this film takes a nice calm and measured approach to the churchy little story. I like churches just fine. I just don’t like seeing people inside them.
Category Archives: Documentary Film
It Came From Kuchar: Underground Film Documentary
Mike Everleth at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, has posted this fascinating documentary about legendary filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar. They’ve been making films separately and together for over 50 years. Don’t be misled by the term underground. These are simply wonderful and exuberant filmmakers who work in their own way and make films exactly the way they want to make them. Their enthusiasm for film, from totally independent low-budget to full-blown Hollywood spectacular, is infectious and should inspire any young filmmaker to follow his or her own muse and make what they really, deeply, necessarily want to make. You can find out a lot more by reading the Bad Lit article about the documentary.
By the way, Bad Lit is in fact the most infectiously enthralling film site you will read for a long time. Go there!
Manhatta 1921
This silent film, with assorted words of Walt Whitman, was photographed by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler.
Christopher Doyle on Cinematography
He reminds me a little of Keith Richards. He’s made some of the most beautiful films you may ever see with director Wong Kar Wai in Hong Kong. He seems to like wandering the colorful streets. Always talking about the light and color. Last night I took my new camera out along Ventura Boulevard very late. I was making a film by moving very slowly from window to window, shooting in an odd off-kilter way with closeups through glass and lights moving in and out of focus. It took me several hours to move three blocks up the boulevard. I haven’t seen the footage yet but the night was loaded with possibilities. Do you have any idea how many things you can come up with when you look inside a store’s display window? You can break it down almost infinitely and create images that have very little to do with the store. I find it a natural and obvious way to make a film. The sets are all there waiting for me to show up with my camera. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know what the film will be. It exists already and will make itself apparent when I start staring at my footage.
The Cinematographer
You’re going to love this!
Life in Hollywood 1927
Part 2 has some footage of silent movies being shot.