Sally Mann "What Remains" Documentary at Seattle Film Festival

[ineffablething]

Saw it friday night. Overall, it was much, much too long at 85 minutes (or thereabouts). She came across as a very intelligent, thoughtful person whose life was totally enmeshed with her art. There were a number of scenes showing her working with the view camera and collodion. There were not nearly enough examples of her photos, and most of the ones that were shown were cropped quite a bit. It was fascinating to see video of her setting up some of her most famous shots like the one of her daughter where her face is mostly submerged under water and her hair floats around her like a corona.

Her children were in the movie and Emmett (sp?) seemed like a very thoughtful boy who cared very much for his mom. Jesse seemed like a bit of an attention hound and freely admitted that she would volunteer to pose for just about anybody that mentioned being a photographer around her. The other girl, whose name escapes me, wasn't much a factor in the film.

Another interesting facet of the movie was how much it focused on the love that Sally and her husband had for one another. They seemed deeply involved even at this advanced stage of their relationship.

As I said earlier, the move could have been cut in half and it wouldn't have been as slow moving and repetitous. It also would have been interesting to hear more about why she works with a view camera and wet plate. Also, several times in the movie, the director made a point of showing Sally talking about how intimidated she was by her father, but that was never really followed up on.

If I had to do it again, I would have waited for the film to come out on DVD.

regards,

IT

 

[nick mulder]

Not sure if this is an illegal distribution or not but this documentary is viewable in its entirety at the following link:

http://video.yandex.ru/users/alexey-mischiha/view/86/

Via this channel or not, its an interesting watch... recommended

 

[ann]

i have it on dvd and show it to my classes on a regular basis . they love it as do i.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I saw a DVD of Sally Mann a while back. Excellant!

Jeff

 

[benjiboy]

Thanks for the link, I really enjoyed it, what a talented and beautiful, and interesting woman Sally Mann is, I had seen and admired her work for some time, but it was a treat to see her in action. I envy the life she leads with her husband and children on their farm it looks so idyllic for a photographer in particular , but would be for most people.

 

[naeroscatu]

thanks for the link, I saw bits and pieces of this movie and I was looking for the whole thing for quite some time. I will watch it tonight.

 

[sionnac]

Will watch it tonight too! Thanks.

 

[Brandon D.]

Saw the program on Ovation TV earlier this year: http://www.ovationtv.com/programs/276. It's definitely worth a watch.

If you have Ovation TV as television channel, I recommend that you tune in. The last two photography programs I saw were on David LaChapelle and on Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Here's their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/OvationTV.

 

[zrisso]

Sorry for bumping the thread up, but I had to post. I've seen the documentary a couple of times, and agree that it could have been an hour long and much better paced. I think the last half of the film could have been condensed considerably and it would still have had an impact. Also wish there was more information on her printing methods than simply showing a little bit of it. Thought it was interesting that she varnished her prints though. Haven't seen someone do that in awhile.