“In praise of rapturous truth”: Under that title, Roger Ebert writes an excellent letter to filmmaker Werner Herzog, in thanks for dedicating his new film Encounters at the End of the World (about the “hidden society” in Antarctica) to him. It’s a must-read. “The line between truth and fiction is a mirage in your work,” he writes, referencing movies like Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man. “Your films, frame by frame, contain a kind of rapturous truth that transcends the factually mundane. And yet when you find something real, you show it.”
Accountants’ verité: Herzog’s history with the Walker is rather illustrious. In 1999, it was here that he made his famed “Minnesota Declaration.” He was here for a Regis Dialogue and Retrospective (Ebert wrote the anchor essay). Coming full circle to Ebert’s point above, the statement’s first line is: “By dint of declaration the so-called Cinema Verité is devoid of verité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants.”
“Love by a Thousand Cuts”: The Nation reviews the Walker-organized exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, on view at the Whitney through Feb. 3.
A-OK from the UK: The Guardian‘s Ana Finel Honigman heaps praise on this humble institution — and our blogs: “[T]he posts welcome readers into the challenging activities that make the Walker one of America’s most innovative exhibition spaces.”
Good godfather! Walker Film’s Jenny Jones is getting major press for her new book, The Annotated Godfather. First an LA Times review, now a segment on KSTP-TV’s newscast (via The Daily Mole).
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