[CAMERAPERSON
screens Thursday December 1st at 6:45 pm and Sunday December 4th at 8:45 pm at
the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
If you were to watch Kirsten Johnson's CAMERAPERSON and see little more than a collection of cutting room
scraps, it would be hard to argue with you. But I will do so nonetheless. Yes, it's true that the film is
assembled out of pieces Johnson shot for other documentaries, mostly for other
directors. Among them: THE PROGRAM, DERRIDA, 1971, DARFUR NOW, NO WOMAN NO CRY, FAHRENHEIT 9/11, and many more. But as the old saying goes, the
whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
On it's most basic, straightforward level, CAMERAPERSON functions as a sort of video
diary for Johnson, detailing where she's been, what she's seen, and how it's
affected her. But from the very first scene, in which we see Johnson alter the
environment in which she is shooting in order to get a better shot, the film
also acts as a sort of meta commentary on documentary filmmaking itself,
pointing out how even the most careful and impartial nonfiction filmmaker can't
help but influence the reality they are capturing.
