• culture

• Theater

• Cinema News

Then, in the middle of the interview, the director asked me, "How would you like to die?"

Kirsten Johnson, one of the world's most respected docu-characters, found an unconventional way to deal with her father's battle death in "Dick Johnson Dies" on Netflix, which became one of the year's acclaimed films.

In an interview ahead of a virtual meeting with the Israeli audience, she talks about life, death and everything in between

Tags

• Dokaviv

• Netflix

Avner Shavit

Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 00:00

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

• Stones were thrown at policemen in Bnei Brak, one of whom fired ...

• The wedding of the grandson of the Rebbe of Darag with the granddaughter of the Rebbe ...

• Blackspace - final episode of the season, Alfie Puppies

• In a limited format and without Trump: Biden was sworn in as president ...

• Fran Leibowitz: Let's say it's a city

• Bling Empire

• Lior Narkis in the clip for his song "God's plot"

• The position, James Marsden

• Children

• Actor and director Muhammad Bakri and former MK Muhammad Bracha ...

Trailer for the movie "Dick Johnson is Dead" (Netflix)

Kirsten Johnson died for her father - so she killed him, time and time again.

The filmmaker did so as part of "Dick Johnson is Dead," which aired on Netflix a few months ago and has since become one of the season's most acclaimed documentaries, starring in the 2020 Summary Parade, garnered numerous awards and is considered a favorite to be nominated for an Oscar.

The film is somewhere on the spectrum between docu, exciting family drama and Yehuda Barkan style thrillers.

Johnson kills her father only as if - she uses the cinematic means of expression to direct his death, and does so in various grotesque forms.

The reason for the strange fact: her father, Dick, is her favorite person in the world, and suffers from dementia.

It is clear that his years are few, and his daughter is having a hard time containing the loss of the battle.

The commemoration of his life and the play of his death is for her a desperate attempt to allow her to deal with the impossible.

Johnson will talk about her hit with the Israeli audience as part of a special virtual event to be held today (Tuesday) sponsored by Dokaviv and Netflix, where the film is still available, of course, with the talk moderated by Dr. Ohad Landsman, a senior documentary film researcher in Israel. Her previous work: For many years, she was one of the most prominent and unique photographers in the American docu-industry, including working on films such as "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Citizen Number 4." After that, she based on everything she shot in the past to create her first film as a director. , "Cameraperson", which came out five years ago and was crowned a masterpiece, and was a reflection on the place and essence of the camera.

More on Walla!

NEWS

One hundred movies to watch on Netflix

To the full article

A fall that is transcendence.

From "Dick Johnson is Dead" (Photo: PR, Netflix)

"I want to believe that the film I made will preserve my father's presence long after his death."

When Johnson filmed the film, she did not know it would rise in the days of a terrible plague that is destroying entire families in the United States.

"Recently, a friend told me that his elderly father died of corona, and it happened in a chilling way," says the director.

"One woman came to get him cookies. She had the best intentions, but she also had a corona, and everyone who got cookies from her got infected. The friend also added that the day before he disconnected his father from the ventilators, he watched 'Dick Johnson died' with "His children, and it was a tremendous catharsis for them. To experience the loss of a parent for the first time is a trauma that we are not so prepared for, and I am glad that my film exists in the world and helps people deal with it."

Your dad, as you can also see in the movie, is the coolest man in the world, and you said he immediately agreed to your unconventional idea.

What would have happened if he had refused?

"I would not try to convince him. You know, I have been through this before. I lived with a man I really liked. I wanted children and he did not, and I tried to convince him again and again until I decided to bring children another way. There is no point in forcing pressure, and there was no point in doing "This film without my father's blessing. To my delight, he agreed immediately. What is certain is that my mother, who unfortunately is no longer alive, would have refused."

"I think sometimes we're too careful about other people because we mistakenly think something might hurt them or make them uncomfortable, but that's unnecessary hesitation. I also think we're scary to photograph our parents, because the perception is that the camera brings death, the camera brings "The future of the room. I tried to break free from all my fears and release my absurd anger - the anger that my father, whom I love so much, is demented; the anger that he is getting old and dying. These are absurd feelings."

How much has the film helped you deal with these feelings?

"I constantly enjoy declaring that the film is a foregone conclusion, because in the end my father will die, but there is in this statement from the provocation. The truth is, that cinema is able to freeze time. Think for a moment about silent films in black and white. I watch them and feel "Very close to Buster Keaton, even though he died many years ago. Cinema has an amazing ability to be in the present. I want to believe that the film I made will preserve my father's presence well long after his death."

This time the meeting with the Israeli audience will be virtual.

Kirsten Johnson in "Dick Johnson is Dead" (Photo: PR, Netflix)

"There were also all kinds of deaths I wanted to direct but it didn't help, for example putting my dad on a glacier and sending him to his death"

Although Johnson makes deep and brilliant films, she is also an entertaining and unmediated person, and at one point in the conversation she even asks me - "Tell me, Avner, how would you like to die?".

I'll keep the answer between us, but here's her answer:

"How would I like to die? I always dreamed of a death that would make people burst out laughing, death like Isadora Duncan, whose scarf got tangled in the wheels of a car and strangled her to death," she says.

Of all the staged deaths in the film, the most significant for me is the fall down the stairs. First of all, it happened to my mother in reality, and although she did not die from it, but she broke a knee and it was a significant moment in her decline. Primary between life and death. "

"When we staged my dad's fall on the stairs, I was embarrassed because it's a pathetic class, but my dad cooperated and even remarked 'I don't look dead enough.' So I realized I could use the effects to highlight his death, I added blood, and he all Time shouted 'More blood, more blood' ".

"There were also all sorts of deaths I wanted to direct but it didn't help, for example putting my dad on a glacier and sending him to his death. In answer to your question, that too is a pretty spectacular way to die."

How do you define the film?

Is that docu in your eyes?

comedy?

A prank movie?

"Already in my previous movie I realized that people react anyway and imagine what you do differently from you. Someone came and told me about 'Cameraperson' which is built like Alzheimer's, and I did not think of it that way at all. One boy came and told me that every movie is a musical genre and when I asked What a genre of my film, he said 'religion' Mattel ', and I would never have thought of that myself. "

"Most of all, I think that from its very title, this film is on the borderline between documenting reality as it is and its imagination. 'Dick Johnson is dead' is a fictional title right now, because my father is alive, but one day it will be true, and then The film will reflect reality. "

The surprising rock star of the year.

From "Dick Johnson is Dead" (Photo: PR, Netflix)

"Israel understands best of all what the intersection of past, present and future is"

"I am full of appreciation for what Israelis are trying to do. It fills me with hope."

Johnson also says that the film is on the border between past, present and future, and adds - "And this is exactly where Israel is always. Of all the countries in the world, you understand best this crossroads.

When Johnson is asked to mention Israeli films that have left their mark, She first notes a short video by B'Tselem, which documents a settler trying to lower a flag from a Palestinian roof, but gets stuck in a barbed wire fence.

If it was not sad, it would be funny, "she says." You look at this video and do not know whether to laugh or cry, and that is in my opinion also the feeling while 'Dick Johnson is dead', only in the case of this video, he illustrates all the absurdities terrible of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "

as befits the generosity of Johnson, she chooses to encourage young filmmaker and commends the" I think that's closest to how the painting looks ", acclaimed student film Meiri Jubilee of 2012." his style and content , This movie reminds me a lot of 'Dick Johnson is Dead'.

The Metrograph Cinema in New York asked me to curate now a series of films that correspond with my film, and I also chose it. "You

visited Israel two years ago.

" Yes, I am a good friend of Philip Blaish, who directed with Rachel Leah Jones and 'Leah Tzemel, lawyer '.

I did a workshop with him as part of the Southern Film Festival, and it was during the Kite Terror.

I remember we talked about what it means to be a photographer at this time.

I spent a great time with the filmmakers at your place and I am full of appreciation for everything they are trying to do within the current situation.

It fills me with hope. "

B'Tselem's video to which Johnson referred

Accompanying young people.

Kirsten Johnson (Photo: PR, Netflix)

Life in America has been particularly crazy in the last month.

As a woman of images, which image particularly caught your eye?

"Like everyone else, I was fascinated by Amanda Gorman, the young poetess who starred in Biden's inauguration ceremony. I was filled with happiness at how she uses language, and with the possibility that this country will look like this in the future. "Photographing themselves in action symbolizes much of the complexity of this historic moment, in which what incriminates you is not the camera of the authorities but your personal camera."

Following "Dick Johnson is Dead," your dad got a lot of fans.

They want to know how he is.

"He does not quite understand what is going on with the film, but he is very proud and every time I tell him I was interviewed on the subject, he asks me 'Really, people are interested in me?'

And he is very enthusiastic about it. "

"After the filming, he spent a few months with my brother, which was good for their relationship, and also for my relationship with my brother. After that, we moved him to a nursing home in Washington. We are a little further geographically, because I live in New York, but I just came to visit "Here he is. He is comfortable here and he is happy, but every time I come to him he tells me 'please take me home' and it is very difficult for me that I can not do it for him."

Johnson's talk with the Israeli audience will take place tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 p.m.

For details and registration - see this link.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments