BURDEN OF DREAMS

Les Blank

Les Blank (Tampa, FL, USA, 1935 - Berkeley Hills, CA, USA, 2013) initially made industrial and promotional films; in 1967, he founded Flower Film to produce his own documentaries. He thus released God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (1968), which was followed by The Sun Is Gonna Shine (1968), about the bluesman Lightinin’ Hopkins. Music played a central role in his next projects, in which he documented all the genres and subgenres of the most heterogeneous American musical traditions, and which are often the only information about musicians who are little-known or who have died in the meantime. In the early 1980s, he directed Werner Herzog Eats His Shoes (1980) and Burden of Dreams (1982), both of which are about the famous German director. In 2007, he and Lisa Leibrech co-directed All in This Tea, his final movie, and that same year he received the prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal of Arts, the first time it was awarded to a filmmaker.

FILMOGRAFIA

God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (cm, doc., 1968) The Sun Is Gonna Shine (doc., 1968), Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (doc., 1980), Werner Herzog Eats His Shoes (doc., 1980), Burden of Dreams (doc., 1982), The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (doc., 1994), Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (doc., 1994), All in This Tea (coregia/codirector Lisa Leibrecht, doc., 2007).