ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

New York Times

The Times of Bill Cunningham

by Leave a Comment

The Times of Bill Cunningham is a documentary about the fashion photographer who was known for riding around New York City on his bicycle taking pictures of whatever interested him. Most of the film is taken from a 1994 interview done by director Mark Bozek. We get to hear Cunningham tell his own story as we see some of the millions of photographs he had taken over decades.

It is fair to say that Cunningham was obsessed with fashion. He relates that even as a child he couldn’t pay attention in church because of his fascination with women’s hats. He went on to design hats early in his career—even doing so while stationed in France during a tour in the Army in the early 1950s. He went on to open his own millenary shop as William J.

When he was given a used camera by a friend, his obsession with fashion found a new expression. He began to take pictures of anything that struck him. He was especially interested in “the way women dressed in their own lives”.  His photograph of Greta Garbo in a nutria coat drew the attention of the New York Times. (They were interested in a photo of Garbo; Cunningham was interested in the nutria coat.)

The film (in narration read by Sarah Jessica Parker) refers to him as “the Nostradamus of fashion and society.” He saw himself not so much as a critic or even as a photographer. He thought of himself as a documenter. As such his photos were not limited to high fashion—although the fashion shows were a big part of his work. He was there for society events to see what celebrities were wearing, but he also took pictures of everyday people on the streets—including the homeless. He also chronicled the Gay Pride celebrations. (The New York Public Library asked for his collection of those photos for its archives.) He wanted to record the world not just as society wanted to be seen, but also to show us the world as it really was.

The film shows us the muted eccentricity of his life. Although he lived in the world of fashion, much of his life he wore hand-me-down clothes. (He says when someone would die, their widow would give him the clothes.) He lived in a small studio over Carnegie Hall with minimal furniture. (He refers to living in “a cave”.) Even when the 2010 documentary about him (Bill Cunningham: New York) premiered, he didn’t see it. He stayed outside the theater photographing people.

©Harold Chapman / Topfoto / The Image Works

Where the film comes up short is that except for photos, it missed the last 20 years of his life, except for a few comments made about those years. But those are not his own reflections on life as we hear in the interview. Cunningham wanted to give us new ways to see the world. Instead this film just gives us a brief glimpse of what he saw.

Photos courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment

The Post – Releasing the Truth

by Leave a Comment

“In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.” (Justice Hugo Black, The New York Times v. The United States)

Steven Spielberg’s The Post is not really about the Pentagon Papers, the leaked secret documents that showed that the American government had lied to the people through four administrations from Truman to Johnson. The publication of those documents in 1971 brought the freedom of the press into the nation’s consciousness. The Post is really about the courage that is sometimes needed to serve the public good and to make sure the government is serving the people.

The film is set at The Washington Post, a paper that aspired to national importance, but hadn’t quite achieved it. When the New York Times published the first stories about the Pentagon Papers, Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) sets his staff to work trying to find a way to get a copy. Soon, one of them tracks down Daniel Ellsberg, the former analyst who leaked the documents. After the Nixon Administration was granted an injunction against the Times to stop publication, Bradlee and his team begin to create their own stories. But it falls on publisher Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) to make the decision—one that could lead to charges of contempt of court and treason.

Bradlee, in this film, is a stereotypical hard-nosed journalist. He is in search of the truth and believes that the truth needs to be known. We get the sense that he and his reporters would easily be willing to face prosecution over the truth and free press. But it is Graham who is the focus for the difficult decision. Katherine Graham became publisher after the suicide of her husband. The paper had been in her family for decades, but she hadn’t really been involved in it. She was a wife, mother, and social hostess in Washington. She is just beginning to establish herself as a business woman (and really not accepted by some on her board). This decision could have devastating consequences for the company—possibly destroying the paper her father and husband had cared so much about. As deadlines loom, legal issues arise, her various advisors give many opinions, her past friendships with people like the Kennedy’s Johnsons, and Robert McNamara weigh on her. But she must finally choose the road the paper will take.

Spielberg is not new to making historical films. (Previous films include The Empire of the Sun, Munich, Schindler’s List and Bridge of Spies). One of the hallmarks of such films is that they are less about the historical events than they are about the personal stories we are seeing. That is true of The Post. The relationship between Bradlee and Graham is one of respect. They each have different priorities. But they each take their responsibilities—to the paper, reporters, and the nation—seriously. As they face the challenge represented in the Pentagon Papers, they push one another, eventually finding ways to help each to reach their bests.

It’s hard to think of a time when a film that highlights the First Amendment is not timely, but it certainly seems especially so with this film. The adversary relationship between the press and government seems to have grown ever more forceful of late. When tweets take the place of serious discussion, the people are not well served. When an administration dismisses negative stories as “fake news”, the people are not served. When governments seek to hide important information, the people are not served. As journalism continues to evolve (and often devolve) in the information age, we need to be able to depend on a free press to (as Justice Black said) “remain forever free to censure the Government.”

Photos Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

1on1 with Wm. Paul Young (author, THE SHACK)

by 3 Comments

Have you heard of The Shack?  Spending an incredible 70 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller lists, Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon.  Upon the release of the official film adaptation on Friday, March 3rd, 2017, we had the opportunity to speak with the book’s author, Wm. Paul Young, to discuss forgiveness, healing and, yes, the controversy over the symbolism.

A VERY special thanks to Wm. Paul Young for joining us on the show!

Starring Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer, The Shack is in theatres now.

 

True Story: What Is Truth?

by Leave a Comment

true storyIn FOX’s True Story, Jonah Hill and James Franco go sifting through the truth and lies of stolen identity, but this isn’t a light-hearted look at someone messing with your credit scores. No, this is a film based on the real-life biopic of Michael Finkel (Hill), who finds that Christian Longo (Franco), an accused serial killer, has stolen his identity. When the two men meet, a relationship develops, and suddenly, the truth of the matter is a very nebulous thing indeed.

While the plot of the film progresses slowly, there’s a certain amount of captivating tension that one can appreciate when picking through the pile of information surrounding a true life whodunit. Did Longo kill his wife and children? Is he innocent? Can Finkel actually figure it out?

The film is helped along by the fact that the principal actors are joined by Felicity Jones, Gretchen Mol, and others, who all provide significant heft to their roles. The dialogue is reasonably engaging, and the case itself led to some significant possibilities in the plot lines. But ultimately,  it boils down to Franco’s Longo and Hill’s Finkel wrestling verbally, over truth, identity, memory, and relational power.

What complicates the actual case playing out in court is the case Finkel finds himself in over an article he wrote for the New York Times, where he created a “composite” of various people he met while researching a story. He didn’t necessarily change the truth of the situations but he combined the stories in a way that his bosses found to be disingenuous, his journalistic integrity compromised. So, while Longo is working to convey his perspective, and his truth, to Finkel, Finkel is himself wrestling with how he hears, digests, and conveys the truth himself.

Not too long ago, I had a parishioner ask me if I thought a specific news station was ‘biased’. While I personally struggle with a significant amount of what this particular station conveys, but I told him that I thought that every news station conveys what it wants to, whether it’s ideologically or based on who owns or sponsors the station. Everyone has a perspective, right? Whether they are intentionally manipulating what they see or simply viewing it only from their perspective, truth can sometimes be … different.

Whether it’s in our daily lives or in the midst of an ongoing murder investigation, we need to be aware that we’re often confused, deceived, or more; we need to be able to discern the truth. While some would point toward the Bible as the truth on which they’ll rest, we must consider (prayerfully) how we read the Bible and ‘digest’ it, as it is a translation, handed down through the generations. Too often, what we accept as true or even Biblical is the result of “whisper down the lane” (try playing that with some elementary school kids!) when we should ask God to guide us and help us be who we’re supposed to be, and what to believe.

In the end, True Story attempts to show us the fragile line of what’s true, and the cost we pay when we lose sight of where that line is.