Going into the showing of Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson, I didn’t really know what to expect. It was definitely an experience. I thought the entire film was absolutely brilliant. Every single scene touched me and I just really enjoyed the entire film. I thought she pulled off her goal of wanting this film to be more like a visual memoir rather than a documentary really well. The sound quality in this film was incomparable. There was a shot of a thunderstorm and the sound of the thunder was so crisp I felt like I was outside with her. There were so many intimate moments that were shown between Kirsten and her subject that I felt touched me emotionally even though I was watching it on screen. Some of those moments included the boy with the one eye and how he started crying a little bit, the middle aged woman who throws all her mothers stuff around the room, they were just really powerful moments. There was also a recurring theme of hands which she discussed during the discussion time after the showing. She said that you can tell a lot about a person by what their hands are doing and I think that is very true. My favorite hand shot was when the young adult was in the pregnancy clinic telling her story. I thought it was moving because we actually never saw her face, but we could tell when she began to cry because you could hear it and see the girl moving one had to her face to wipe her tears. I thought that was a really effective and creative method to express human emotion.
After the showing, Kirsten came back into the theater and we had a discussion. The first thing I noticed was that not only is she really funny and smart, but she is really just a great people person. You can just tell she’s very good at dealing with people and talking to them which must benefit her career as a documentary filmmaker. One thing I took away from the discussion was her point about finding a way to represent death respectfully and with dignity. She tied it in to the scene where the baby is slowing going to pass away because the hospital is unable to get the oxygen he would need to have to survive. I was also able to tell when she was talking about that scene that she is still very distraught over it which obviously portrayed how she developed a genuine sense of love, appreciation, and fondness for the people she met while filming. Another thing Kirsten talked about that resonated with me was her point connecting with her subjects while she films. She explained to the class by saying, “I’m here and I can stay here” “lock in”. She stressed to the class that your subjects need to have trust in your and that it is good if you can develop a relationship of them and especially a relationship of trust since you could potentially be filming something that is intimate and personal.
I really appreciated the technique she used where she would show something that might have been difficult to digest and then she went to directly to a clip of her children or family members being silly. It was a great way to break up the dark scenes featured in her film. Lastly, her point about our relationship to other people’s pain was really fascinating. She discussed that it’s natural for us to be curious about how other people deal with pain. She said it was difficult not to immediately stop filming and comfort her subject in pain, but she knew it would be emotionally strong if she was able to capture the footage, and she was correct.
Overall, the showing and discussion was moving and a thought provoking experience. I really enjoyed her creative methods and styles. Overall, I really enjoyed myself.