Sunday links
The usual weekly selection of links to things I have found interesting to read and to watch over the past seven days.
• The Kennedy films of Robert Drew & Associates – capturing the Kennedys: it’s great news that The Criterion Collection in the States have just released a DVD set of four key verité films from Drew Associates made in the early 1960s, including Primary, 1960 (above). Here, Thom Powers celebrates their achievement; at Criterion online there is also a complementary (and fascinating) photo-feature by Issa Clubb.
• Films beget films: Luke McKernan pays tribute to the archive film researcher, although I’m not so sure about this:
I’ve come to realise that insisting the clips must portray what they originally portrayed is a form of pedantry, and that poetic licence is not only a necessity but frequently a virtue.
• Andrei Tarkovsky – poetic harmony: a gorgeous compilation from Lewis Bond:
• Bleed, bleed, poor country – Shakespeare on the Indian screen: a richly interesting article for Sight&Sound by Koel Chatterjee and Preti Taneja.
• Our dated model of theatrical release is hurting independent cinema: Richard Brody for The New Yorker.
• The photographers who exposed America – Arbus, Goldin, Winogrand: Shaun Pett for the Guardian on what looks like a great show in Toronto, with some terrific images.
• The secret history of Tiger Woods: a wonderful piece of journalism from Wright Thompson for espn.
• Trains in space: at London Review of Books, James Meek reviews at (considerable) length Simon Bradley’s exceptional The Railways: Nation, Network and People…
• Railways for Ever: … and the 1970 British Transport Film Unit short marking the passing of steam with John Betjeman, courtesy of the BFI.
• Richard Prince always wanted to be the coolest artist in the world: Carl Swanson’s fascinating profile for New York magazine of the appropriating artist.
• What happened to Purity? – Jonathan Franzen and the aspirations and disappointments of a contract writer: GD Dess for LA Review of Books on a writer, an aspiring best-seller and the state of American fiction.
• The secret signals that rule our transport networks: artists Georgina Voss and Wesley Goatley on their installation that uses data guiding trains and boats and planes.
• The storyteller’s guide to the virtual reality experience: Katy Newton and Karin Soukup tackle the question, How do we tell a story for the audience when the audience is present within it?
• Sydney Opera House 360° experience featuring soprano Nicole Car and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra: this 360° video really is very cool.
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