Sunday, October 9, 2016

Episode #86 - Gordon Quinn (One Way Or Another)




"You're not just like your subjects. You're a filmmaker. You need to acknowledge who you are."

If cinema can achieve more than simply be art but a form of action, how does one negotiate the role that the camera plays in reality. Celebrating its 50th Year, Kartemquin Films has used cinema as a tool for addressing social, political, and economic inequality through the documentary from, spearheaded by its co-founder Gordon Quinn. In this wide ranging interview, Gordon reflects on the early days of the collective—from films about retirement homes and the general state of happiness to more direct political engagement through filming labor strikes. He talks with Peter about negotiating the role of the subject, the role of his own identity in filming the stories of others, the importance of character, and the fickle nature between making a statement and making a dollar. Finally, the two discuss a film that shows all of the work in action: Sara Gomez's landmark documentary One Way Or Another, which stages fabricated drama in the midst of real turmoil in 1970s Cuba to a powerful effect.

0:00-3:29 Opening
4:19-10:04 Establishing Shots — Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women
10:49-1:20:13 Deep Focus — Gordon Quinn
1:20:56-51:51 Sponsorship Section
1:24:33-1:42:01 Double Exposure — One Way or Another (Sara Gomez)
1:42:05-1:43:44 Close
Notes and Links from the Conversation
—Learn more about Gordon and Kartemquin Films
—More about the films: Home For Life, Thumbs Down, Inquiring Nuns, Now We Live in Clifton, HSA Strike '75The Chicago Maternity Center Story, Taylor Chain I, Taylor Chain II, The Last Pullman Car, Golub, Hoop Dreams, StevieRefrigerator Mothers, The New Americans, Raising Bertie.
—Listen to the letter from Kelly Reichardt discussing Peter Hutton
—Jules Dassin's He Who Must Die
—Edward R. Murrow's Harvest of Shame
—A Clip from Ricky Leacock's Happy Mother's Day
Mike Shea's And This Is Free
Jerry Blumenthal
—Frederick Wiseman's Welfare
Justine Nagan (who now worked for POV)
—The referenced Cineaste Interview is by J. Lesage and appears in the Fall 1975 issue.
—Watch Sara Gomez's One Way or Another

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