Lost & Found at the Movies is the Library Foundation’s series celebrating the art of cinema and the vitality of film culture. Eclectic in theme and varying in form, this onstage magazine explores how we lose ourselves and find ourselves at the movies.
Popular conceptions of documentary film tend to gravitate toward the idea of ‘capturing reality’ – observing the world as it exists, often addressing social issues or politics. And while those contribute to the richness of the form, they encourage discussion of content over craft.
What’s lost is the idea that non-fiction is the work of an artist (with a personal sensibility and distinctive voice) and of a form that’s capable of profound lyricism and artfulness. That’s never been more evident that during this Golden Age, marked by real inventiveness and artists who are blurring boundaries and thinking outside the frame…beyond the literal and into the poetical.
One such artist is Sam Green whose diverse body of work includes the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground, numerous shorts (The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, Pie Fight ’69, Lot 63/Grave C) and his evolving “live cinema” pieces (Utopia in Four Movements, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller and The Measure of All Things).
He’s joined by Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and former commissioning editor / executive producer (The Story of Film, The Arbor, 20,000 Days on Earth and The Imposter) who has made the case that “the lingua franca of non-fiction filmmaking should be the language of cinema and not the language of grant applications.”
Together they lead us through the ‘art of the real’ by way of a spontaneously created “doc art mix tape”…an impulsive exchange of clips, images and novel ideas; a personal journey through the cinematic moments that expand our sense of what documentary can be, culminating in a “live cinema” performance by Green.
LFLA Member reception to follow.
