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Award-winning director, producer, & cinematographer Les Blank has been making independent films for well over four decades.
He continues to explore the passion, perils and peculiarities of our shared human experience with his own unique vision in films such as “The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins,” “Always For Pleasure,” and “God Respects Us When We Work, But He Loves Us When We Dance,” among a host of many other documentary films.
Mr. Blank has received numerous awards in filmmaking, including the British Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary “Burden of Dreams,” and the Grand Prize at the Melbourne Film Festival for “In Heaven There Is No Beer?”
Many retrospectives of his work have been mounted at film festivals worldwide, and he is one of three documentary filmmakers to have his work selected (two films, in fact) for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress (”Chulas Fronteras,” and “Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers”).
In 1999, his films were chosen by The Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for full restoration. I had the pleasure to speak with Les shortly before Christmas. Mr. Blank will be appearing in person at the 2010 Salem Film Fest:
Elias: Hello, Les! Pleasure to speak with you. How is the weather?
Les: Quite nice, actually. It is sunny and warm.
Elias: That’s nice. It’s brutal here in Salem.
Les: I can imagine.
Elias: Are you in Arizona?
Les: California. I’m going there (Arizona) Sunday.
Elias: Could you speak a little about your artistic process, and how that has evolved in the course of your career?
Les: Well, you’d have to figure it out for yourself. This can be discerned from looking at my work, over time, and that is the way it has evolved through the decades, for the subjects that I care about, in filming them.
My artistic process follows the dictates of my subject matter and the way I feel their story needs to be told.
Elias: So it is an organic process, then?
Les: Yes, it is a very organic process, and specific to the subject matter in that way.
Elias: How did you set upon the actor Klaus Kinski as a subject matter?
Les: Well, he was selected by Werner Herzog (film director) to fill the role after Warren Oats had quit. Jack Nickelson was originally attached to the project, but that would have meant studio involvement from Paramount, and Herzog did not want those kinds of constraints. Then, Jason Robards got sick and quit, Mick Jagger quit…of course, he had a world tour to do. If Klaus couldn’t do it, then Werner was going to play the role himself! He wanted absolutely no studio involvement.
Elias: I see. I understand you are working on three films at the moment…Give or take…with more on the backburner, as well…?
Les: You could say that. I am working on “All In This Tea” (About an eccentric tea importer who travels to China in search of the perfect leaf), “Natalie Chanin,” a New York fashion designer who was chosen as Vogue’s Fashion Designer of the Year, and “Bering There” –about the co-founder of Direct Cinema, Ricky Leacock. Also, one about Alabama folk artist Butch Anthony.
Alias: Is your working process dictated largely by financing, or your own muse?
Les: Depends, really. A bit of both. If someone put a pile of money in front of me and said: ‘Here, finish this movie’, then I would feel compelled to finish that particular project.
Elias: How are your films financed?
Les: Mostly grants, grant givers.
Elias: How, if at all, has the advent of digital technology changed your artistic process?
Les: Things are more accessible. It certainly has made shooting easier, way easier. You can afford more coverage, multiple coverage with more cameras, because it is cheaper. This can present somewhat of a problem for me because if the money is there I end up shooting quite a bit of footage, and that can be a problem in the editing room.
Elias: Do you edit your own films?
Les: In the beginning I did, but now, after my second film my assistant Maureen Gosling took over that job in the edit studio, so then we have a working relationship where I would handle the distribution and she would do the editing.
My last film was edited by Gina Leibrecht, she did the last one. I’ve been working with her since 1998. Gina’s young, very talented; she’s a wonderful editor.
Elias: Les, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with me, and I look forward to meeting you at the Salem Film Fest!
Les: Thank you as well. Appreciate it.
Meet Les In Person! Master Documentary Filmmaker Les Blank has accepted an invitation to attend the 2010 Salem Film Fest! For more info, visit the Salem Film Fest site or Les’s site.
The 2010 Salem Film Fest is February 25-March 4.
