The second we heard a sneeze that shook a camera shooting lightning, I was engaged.
I was not sure what to expect when I sat down to watch Cameraperson. I appreciated and respected Kirsten Johnson’s director’s statement, and was excited to meet the writer. I was not quite sure how a biographical-type documentary worked. The filmmaker is separate from the film; the point of documentary is to facilitate this separation in order to find and illustrate truth. Right?
Wrong. The point of documentary is to bring truth to light, yes, but there are many ways in which to do this. Cameraperson taught me that truth can be found by exploring the world through the eyes of the filmmaker. From their vision, you learn not only their personal truth but also that of others with whom they interact.
This film was quite honestly an intense emotional rollercoaster. The snapshots of a documentarian’s lifestyle are absolutely riveting; Cameraperson did an excellent job of showing how invested the filmmaker becomes in their stories, and the fast transitions illustrated how difficult it is to be torn away. I became absolutely and wholly invested in the lives of the people in the films, as I could tell KJ did as well.
I found myself moved almost to tears when she returned to the family that she had earlier filmed. Documentary takes wild and unexpected turns; that had not been her original intention. The happiness of those children and their family watching the old video was contagious.