Cameraperson

A cinematographer turns director in Kirsten Johnson's empathetic, collage-style documentary about her 25-year career behind the camera. Johnson builds her audiovisual memoir around outtakes from films she contributed to, sharing her process as much as her work. She pulls weeds to get a better ground-level shot in Bosnia, wipes dust from her camera in Yemen, and switches focus from a dancer in Uganda to the attention-seeker pulling crazy faces behind him. With the exception of the subjects who requested anonymity, such as a rape victim in Bosnia, she identifies the speakers and locations, but not the actual films (although viewers may recognize high-profile titles, like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Laura Poitras's Oscar-winning Citizenfour—fortunately, all 24 titles are listed in the end credits). Johnson also inserts footage of her toddler twins, Felix and Viva, and her parents, Catherine and Rod, who become part of the tapestry. While the children grow older, Catherine, who has Alzheimer's disease, seems to grow blurrier as her memory fades. By drawing no distinction between her personal and professional lives, Johnson suggests that each depends on the other. As she notes in an inter-title at the outset, "These are images that have marked me." By finding the common ground between life and work, Johnson joins the ranks of master cinematic diarists like Agnès Varda and the late Chantal Akerman. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an “In the Service of the Film” roundtable conversation with director Kirsten Johnson, producer Gini Reticker, and sound recordists Wellington Bowler and Judy Karp (39 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette (37 min.), two 2016 film festival talks with Johnson—one with filmmaker Michael Moore (37 min.), Johnson's 2015 short film “The Above” (9 min.), trailers, and a booklet with an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda and reprinted writings by Johnson. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an excellent documentary.] (K. Fennessy)