JOHN FORD John Wayne Onhorseback!
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JOHN FORD at MONUMENT VALLEY A documentary with IONAL John Wayne on horseback! INTERNAT Poorhouse Newsletter No30 April - September 2013 CiNDERELLA ***** The Financial Times 2 wichita films JOHN FORD at MONUMENT VALLEY Who else could talk with starting with Stage Coach and ending Clara and Julia Kuperberg round off with Cheyenne Autumn. Peter Cowie, the their documentary with telling shots of authority about the record author of John Ford and the American Monument Valley and clips from most of Oscar winning director West, explains what makes Ford’s films so John Ford’s films which are touched on in unique: authenticity. And this authenticity is this unique profile. John Ford but one of his largely due to proper preparation of the favourite actors, John actors, the so called ‘Ford stock company’ directed by Wayne. And he does so in of John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Clara & Julia Kuperberg Stewart, Harry Carrey Jr., John Carradine, this documentary mainly produced by Wichita Films Ward Bond, Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, running time: 55' shot in HD on horseback and at Joanne Dru … and the study of the painters Frederick Remington and Charles Monument Valley! M. Russell who perfectly captured the spirit of the ‘wild west’. The careful framing Ford is considered to be the grand and the positioning of the skyline are part old master of the American cinema, the of John Ford’s trademark. heart beat of the Western myth and While John Wayne, James Steward and an inspiration for generations of film Henry Fonda reveal personal memories directors from Hitchcock and Orson about the rather secretive persona of the Welles to Spielberg and Scorsese. Welles director, Martin Scorsese talks about even admitted to have studied Stage The Searchers, a film of Ford’s that inspired Coach frame by frame before shooting him so much. Citizen Cane. Clara and Julia Kuperberg’s documentary tells the story of how the trader Harvey Golding set up his shop at Monument Valley to do business with the Navajos who settled there. One day he heard that United Artists looked for a suitable location in Arizona where John Ford was to shoot a Western. Golding went to Hollywood and convinced the studio that Monument Valley was the right place. John Ford subsequently shot eight of his most famous films at the valley, PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No30 les films d’ici& alt-o productions3 THE ART OF BEiNG ARRABAL Fernando Arrabal is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet who settled in France leaving behind him Franco’s Spain. He describes himself as “desterrado” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled”. The New York Times theatre critic Mel Gussow has called Arrabal “the last survivor among the ´Three EDOUARD MANET Avatars of Modernism’”. A friend of Andy Warhol as well as Tristan Tzara, Arrabal A Disquieting Strangeness spent three years as a member of André Breton’s surrealist group. Deeply political and rocambolesque, both revolutionary The documentary maker Hopi Lebel, directed by Hopi Lebel who made a very special film on Miró and bohemian, he has made the world for us years ago, is taking a fresh look at produced by Les Films d’Ici & his theatre with Kafka’s lucidity and one of the greatest painters of the 19th Le Musée d’Orsay Jarry’s humour. Director Pierre Alexis century, who was at best misunderstood running time: 52' shot in HD de Potestad takes him in this revealing but at the same time defended by documentary to the places which most some of France’s most famous writers: mattered to Arrabal and inspired him Baudelaire, Zola and Mallarmé. Manet like and gives us a taste of the poet´s power Baudelaire had contracted Syphilis and of conviction. And who would be better mustered all his energy at the age of 47, suited to talk about Arrabal than Arrabal between two hospital stays, to mount himself? an exhibition which would have put him back right into the centre of modernity, directed by Bernard Léonard at the cutting edge of painting of his time. & Pierre Alexis de Potestad We experience a virtual hanging of his produced by Alt-o Productions pictures and learn from art historians running time: 60' Stéphane Guégan, Nancy Locke and Alain Corbin how the most famous of them shot in DigiBeta 16:9 reflect decisive moments of the painter’s life and how he contributed with his art to change the perception of society. In this context Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, Olympia and Le bar aux Folies-Bergères take on complex meanings which blend reality and fiction with personal experience, ending with contemporary subjects in the style of the masters. Yes, Manet was a strange personality with a very disquieting message. PoorhouseApril - September 2013 international 4 brent huffman The BUDDHAS of AYNAL ‘The Buddhas of Aynak’ is Philippe Marquis, director and lead been advanced, such as lack of firewood archaeologist of DAFA (Délégation or water or the technical problems the story of a race against Archéologique Francaise en Afghanistan, caused by in depth mining. time - an effort to preserve foundet 1922 by Alfred Foucher) has A recently discovered stele, identified been tirelessly working at the Buddhist by Gérard Fussman as representing Prince some of the world’s most site in the windswept moonscape of Mes Siddharta, has caused a sensation and precious Buddhist relics Aynak for years. He has been leading the forces historians to rethink how Buddhism at an archaeological effort to preserve artifacts on the site, has spread in the region. move small pieces to the Kabul museum, The Buddhas of Aynak will be a feature- site in Afghanistan and unearth undiscovered relics still length documentary in the same vein that is threatened by buried in the sands of Logar province. He as Werner Herzog´s Cave of Forgotten has been the dominant voice exposing Dreams in its ability to capture the awe- Taliban attacks and the the Chinese proposed destruction of inspiring beauty and cultural significance encroachment of a massive the site to the international community of artifacts and examine the inspirational Chinese copper mine and has been training a team of Afghan people who are preserving these relics for archaeologists to work full-time on site. future generations. The documentary will that will destroy forever The Chinese mine will destroy whatever is follow Philippe Marquis’ struggle to save these ancient and sacred not saved, when it will begin open-pit style this ancient Buddhist site. copper mining later this decade. The film will also examine the process artifacts. This dramatic Mes Aynak, a desert region located of excavating in such a tumultuous area story will be told by 90 minutes southwest of Kabul, is an prone to extreme Taliban violence. To filmmakers given unique archaeological treasure trove of ancient make matters worse, archeologists must Buddhist artifacts. It was at this site work with inadequate funding and crude access to all the parties that a Buddhist monastery complex tools in extreme heat and cold at a site involved. Several shoots with extensive wall frescoes, devotional which is not accessible during the winter temples known as stupas and hundreds when the adjacent river bed cannot have been organized and of Buddha statues was built and inhabited be driven in. The Buddhas of Aynak will the finished film will be between 300 and 800 A.D. Copper feature a well-rounded cast of supporting ready by this summer. mining and trade provided a certain characters including Afghan archaeologists, wealth for an apparently mixed society of Buddhist scholars, Afghan politicians and produced & directed by Brent monks and civilians. Why this complex has citizens in support of Chinese investment, Huffman running time: 52' or been abandoned in an orderly way and U.S. military strategists and Chinese MCC was forgotten for more than a thousand workers living and working in Afghanistan. 90’shot in HD years is not yet clear. Various theories have PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No30 wichita films 5 STEVE SHAPIRO - The Loving Lens Brooklyn born Steve Schapiro the 70s Schapiro shifted his attention to retrospective in Rostock, Germany. discovered photography at the age of 9 film and produced advertising material, “If you’re on peoples’ wavelength and care at a summer camp. He spent decades posters and publicity stills for films as about them”, says Schapiro, “they are very prowling the streets of his native New varied as Godfather, The Way We Were, responsive.” How responsive you will York City trying to emulate Henry Cartier Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, Rambo, Risky see when Schapiro takes you through Bresson whom he greatly admired. He Business and Billy Madison. He also was his most important work which will be later studied with W. Eugene Smith, responsible for record covers starring juxtaposed by Clara and Julia Kuperberg pioneer of the photo essay. Smith not only Barbary Streisand and David Bowie. with archive footage of the events, taught him the technical skills but also Covering the filming ofMidnight Cowboy location filming and clips from the films informed his personal outlook and world- Schapiro made friends with Dustin Schapiro took pictures for. view. From 1961 Schapiro worked as a Hoffman and when it came to this freelance photo-journalist and contributed portrait Dustin was of course prepared to to major magazines. He made a name for talk, more so, to interview Schapiro about himself with photo essays including the his career. And Jodie Foster also agreed working conditions of migrant workers to make an appearance as well as Michael in Arkansas, the Apollo Theatre and drug Mann. addicts in East Harlem. He says: “The In 2007 he published Schapiro’s Heroes narcotic addicts in East Harlem accepted which offers intimate profiles of ten iconic me because they trusted me.