Cameraperson
Dir: Kirsten Johnson
2016
****
Kirsten Johnson’s 2016 autobiographical collage (not sure it really counts as a true documentary film) was a hard film to get into and, at first, seemed like a reel of rejected clips and something of a cheap way of getting her own film out. The film is an account by Johnson about her life and career as a cinematographer. It relies solely on footage shot by Johnson across the years in numerous different countries. None of the short clips are related to one another, they are just glimpses of all the films she has worked on. I actually felt cheated for the first twenty minutes or so but then became intrigued. I still think it was a cheap idea but I get it and if I was in her position I probably would have done the same if I had thought of it. The big issue with the film is that Johnson started the film with her least interesting clips. There was nothing to reel in the viewer, so she really did just hope that viewers would give it a chance. The thing is though, this is a film that will appeal to channel hoppers more than any other type of viewer. I think your typical channel hopper would have switched it off within the first ten minutes. In many respects it is a greatest hits but of unseen footage. Fans of the director (whom I’m afraid I knew nothing about even though I have seen some of her films) will be on cloud 9 and people with a short attention span and a love of film and film technique with find it insightful. I have to admit it was interesting to see how her career has developed over twenty-five years. It is essentially a hybrid piece that combines autobiography, documentary, and ethical inquiry – the first objective of any good documentary. It is a basic series of episodic juxtapositions that explore the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality and crafted narrative. Two Towns of Jasper, Derrida, Wide Angle, Fahrenheit 9/11, Darfur Now, Throw Down Your Heart, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, The Oath, The Edge of Joy, Women, War & Peace: I Came to Testify, Virgin Tales, Here One Day, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, 1971, Citizenfour, Very Semi-Serious, Buffalo Returns, Trapped, Audrie & Daisy and Cradle of Champions are just some of the documentaries featured. I think my favorites were the ones that showed life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina, the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife and the boxing match in Brooklyn. Pretty much every emotion is triggered but the clip will always switch to another just as the viewer gets too engrossed in that one story. You get where Johnson is emotionally with pretty much ever clip but it is the scenes that feature her and her interaction with her mother whose fading health and mind is obvious that is most personal. In truth, I went from disliking Cameraperson to finding myself totally (and happily) submerged by it. While most of the clips seem to relate to a common theme of tragedy whether it be worldly or at a personal level, Johnson has the great ability of giving the viewer just enough information to feel empathy but without being overwhelmed and numbed. In other words, she brings the viewer to her own deep level of humanity and opens that window that shows us exactly how someone who covers such tragedy deals with the effect in the moment and when they return home. There are few words to describe it, but then Johnson is a cinematographer, so she shows us the best way she can – through her life’s work.