- Directed by Les Blank
- United States, 1980, 26 mins., English
Herzog fulfills a promise to filmmaker Errol Morris upon the completion of Morris’s first film, GATES OF HEAVEN (screening August 9).
Genres: Documentary, Short
Other Films by Les Blank
Burden of Dreams
Werner Herzog spent four years in the jungles of Peru making FITZCARRALDO, the chronicle of a mad Irish dreamer who wants to bring opera to the Amazon. Like the film’s hero, Herzog himself became a man of total obsession. Overcoming the seemingly impossible challenges of finances, location, weather, cast turnover, and wars with both native …
Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
t is hard to think of anyone who did more than the recently deceased Les Blank (1935-2013) to document American folk, food, and music cultures. Roaming regional backroads, his laid-back camera captured people with a deep appreciation of life and the commitment to celebrate it seriously. Blank’s loving garlic film is a lively salute to …
A Poem is a Naked Person
Les Blank’s portrait of Leon Russell went unreleased for 40 years before hitting the screen. Russell, who also coproduced the project, wasn’t happy with the result, so questions of rights and differences of opinion meant that only a handful of people ever saw the film. Blank shot the footage between 1972 and 1974 while living …
Always for Pleasure
The vibrancy of New Orleans’ cultural life in the late 1970s shines through in Blank’s characteristically freewheeling, fun, yet incisive documentary portrait of the city. Featuring interviews and performance footage with prominent New Orleanian musicians including Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, the Neville Brothers, Kid Thomas Valentine, and Allen Toussaint among others, Blank weaves a tapestry …