Documentaries, old and new, with stills and notes for students, makers, and observers of documentary film and video. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, November 30, 2009
Jim McBride
David Holzman's Diary (1967), by Jim McBride, is not a documentary -- an actor, L.M. Kit Carson, plays a filmmaker who decides to film his own life and who frequently speaks directly to the camera (top still). The film is a tremendously funny and prescient spoof of filmmaking and "one-man crew" shooting (in the second still, Holzman holds the camera on one shoulder; a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder hangs from his other shoulder). It anticipates the "skirt-chasing" genre (Ross McElwee's Sherman's March is another example) of documentary autobiography -- David Holzman's camera spies on, annoys, chases, and generally objectifies several women.
Title:
David Holzman's Diary