The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, January 4-10
Cameraperson (2016)
Directed by Kirsten Johnson
Johnson’s powerful documentary is a fragmented story about the moral, professional and creative responsibilities one is instantly bestowed while working behind the camera. Her years of experience as a documentary cinematographer have gifted her with an array of astonishing material. Since much (if not all) of this material was never used in the documentaries they were meant for, it allows Johnson enormous creative leeway, and ultimately feels like she is showing us moments we weren’t supposed to see. But Cameraperson is also about what you don’t see—what Johnson frames away from, emphasizing cinema’s natural ability to juggle both what’s seen and unseen. This is what makes watching this film a wonderfully unique experience.
By using footage from her past work, Johnson puts together a visual memoir that juxtaposes numerous locations—from postwar Bosnia to an Al-Qaeda detention facility in Yemen to backstage at a boxing match in Brooklyn—giving way for some beautiful, thought-provoking associations. Johnson frames her subjects delicately, with absolute fascination and is always deeply empathetic, all while fleshing out some more personal and inner struggles on death, trauma and motherhood. Alejandro Veciana (January 8, 4:30pm at the Museum of the Moving Image’s “Curators’ Choice,” with Johnson and editor Niels Bangerter in person)