Les Blank

Les Blank (2008)

Les Blank (born November 27, 1935 in Tampa , Florida , † April 7, 2013 in Berkeley , California ) was an American documentary filmmaker .

Live and act

Les Blank studied English at Tulane University in New Orleans . Under the influence of the Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal (1957), he began training as an actor and screenwriter before attending film school at the University of Southern California . He gained his first professional experience in industrial and educational films; finally he founded the production company Flower Films in 1967 .

As early as 1965 Blank made a short film about the jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie , which was followed by other portraits of musicians. 1968 was The Blues According to Lightnin 'Hopkins , which brought him national attention; In 1973 Hot Pepper appeared on the Zydeco musician Clifton Chenier and in 1983 Sprout Wings and Fly appeared on the country musician Tommy Jarrell . Other films were J'ai été au bal about the Cajun culture and Chulas Fronteras about the music scene on the Texas-Mexican border region; also a film about Huey Lewis and the News , which showed the band making the video for Stuck With You . Burden of Dreams , Blanks look behind the scenes of Werner Herzog's grandiose film adaptation of Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian jungle, “became a classic chronicle of an obsession”.

For the polka film In Heaven There is No Beer , he won the 1985 Sundance Film Festival special jury award . Blank received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Film Institute and the International Documentary Association ; also the Honorary Maverick Award at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2000. He died on April 7, 2013 of complications from bladder cancer .

Filmography (selection)

• 1960: Running Around Like a Chicken with Its Head Cut Off
• 1978: constant pleasure
• 1980: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
• 1980: Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
• 1982: the burden of dreams
• 1989: I went to the dance. The Cajun and Zydeco music of Louisiana
• 1995: The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists
• 1995: Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella
• 2007: All in This Tea

Web links

• Les Blank in Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Obituary on the Billboard
2. ↑ Obituary in ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Huffington Post 
3. ↑ Acclaimed documentary filmmaker: Les Blank dies. In: feb / AP. Spiegel Online , April 8, 2013, accessed April 11, 2013 .