Belfast Film Festival

"... represents a showcase of 130 films and events, celebrating talent from 35 countries around the world.”

I made it to my first film last night and the festival ends in two days. Whatever. The film was called Cameraperson. It was a melange of the work of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, whose specialty is human-made disaster. A lot of the footage was from Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Nigeria. In the U.S., her footage suggests documentaries on a pregnant teen seeking an abortion, the trial of those who dragged James Byrd to his death, the life of a Bronx boxer, and the aftermath of sexual abuse investigations at Penn State. Here’s what the film website says:

"Exposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.”

So I was looking for that revelatory interrogation part and I was disappointed. The film is easily 80 excerpts from her other films with no narration, reflection, or introspection by KJ. You have to divine for yourself the themes in her work, whether you feel her approach was ethical or not, how she felt about the people she interviewed and the places she visited. I wanted some interpretation and commentary. However, I read a Variety review which helped me make sense of the film. The scenes of her mother, who has Alzheimer’s, are the most touching in the film. Here’s how Variety summed the film up:

"The way individuals, and societies, grapple with memories both buried and lost stands at the heart of “Cameraperson.” Thus, it’s little surprise that the film’s most piercing passages are its most private: those of Johnson’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother, Catherine, traversing the family farm, plagued by a mental fugue from which she can’t escape. In these episodes — of Catherine being nearly swept away by a gusty wind, or helping Johnson comb her hair in the mirror — the desire to recapture that which is gone, to remember that which has been forgotten, and to express one’s self through art all emerge with grace and power. In the process, they suggest that the cameraperson’s ultimate role is not only that of the silent witness, but also of the engaged participant and the empathetic (auto)biographer.

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