This is an aside titled 'The Brilliant Kathryn Bigelow' dated 3/9/10
Living in Boston, I’ve seen a number of extraordinary people give talks and presentations, but last year at the Harvard Film Archive, Kathryn Bigelow struck me as particularly brilliant. Bigelow was a painter before she was a film maker. A downtown artist, a fellow at the Whitney Museum, a student of Vito Acconci and Susan Sontag. Her first film, made in grad school, featured Sylvère Lotringer and Marshall Blonsky. But her action films aren’t a rejection of her background, rather, they expand on it. She has made a deliberate decision to speak to as wide an audience as possible, and in doing so never sacrificed her vision. Her favorite word to describer her work is “experiential.” In an excellent post, the best thing I’ve read about her work yet, Steven Shaviro, further explains this quality of “sensory immersion.” Of course her win is a milestone. Especially since it means the issue of women in film longer a question of capability. More women than men are in the Whitney Biennial this year, and they had the strongest work. Kathryn Bigelow won because she made the best film. Here she is with Charlie Rose. Near Dark is the perfect movie to watch at 5 am. Such an inspiration.
-
A collection of interesting ideas curated by
Joanne McNeil. About ➚
Sponsors
