AFW + NFSA #65: A Life Well Spent - shorts by Les Blank

7:30PM Tuesday 28 May
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Road, Brunswick.
16mm projection. $10 on the door.

AFW is delighted to present a screening of short films by renowned American documentary filmmaker Les Blank. This screening brings together three of Blank’s shorter documentary films, accompanied by local filmmaker Madeleine Martiniello’s 16mm short documentary, Tomato Day, made at AFW in 2017.

Les Blank’s films are cinematic observations of their cultural moment. Typically these moments exist on the periphery of mainstream culture: many of Blank’s films explore the regional characteristics of fringe communities and marginalised artistic subjects in deep America.

His films are a celebration of all things: of simplicity, of time, of colour, of cooking, of living.

We are thrilled to present a selection of his most beloved short films, all of which were produced by Blank in collaboration with regular editor and sound recordist Maureen Gosling.

· Gap-Toothed Women (1987) 31 mins. Dir. Les Blank
A charming valentine to women born with a space between their teeth, ranging from lighthearted whimsy to a deeper look at issues like self-esteem and societal attitudes toward standards of beauty.

· Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1979) 22 mins. Dir. Les Blank
Werner Herzog honouring a vow he made to Berkeley student Errol Morris that he would eat his shoe if Morris ever made a film.

· Dry Wood (1973) 37 mins. Dir. Les Blank and Maureen Gosling
The featured music in this Les Blank film is that of “Bois Sec” (Dry Wood) Ardoin, his sons and Canray Fontenot. Highlights include a rollicking country Mardi Gras, work in the rice fields, a “men’s only” supper, and a hog-butchering party (that follows the hog from the kill to sausage).

· Tomato Day (2017) 6 min. Dir. Madeleine Martiniello
- Filmmaker in attendance -
Tomato Day is a short study of the tension between nostalgia and the filmic image. Many hands at work labour over a family tradition as it is translated between the generations.
Madeleine Martiniello is a documentary filmmaker and was one of the founding members of Artist Film Workshop.