FILM
Innervisions
Probing blind artists’ creativity, the filmmaker’s included
BY GARY M. KRAMER
What does it mean to
work as a blind artist?
This question
prompted out gay
fi lmmaker Rodney Evans (“Brother
to Brother”) to create his thoughtful,
probing documentary “Vision
Portraits.”
The fi lm contrasts Evans’ own
experience losing his sight — he
suffers from a rare genetic eye condition,
retinitis pigmentosa, that
causes retinal deterioration — with
that of three artists: John Dugdale,
a gay, HIV-positive photographer;
Kayla Hamilton, a dancer;
and Ryan Knighton, a writer.
“Vision Portraits” is enthralling
because its subjects are never
sentimentalized. Viewing them as
“inspirational” is condescending
and misses the point, the fi lm suggests.
Evans exposes himself and
showcases the other artists because
The Day the Starlet Died
Tarantino views Hollywood through Manson Family lens
BY STEVE ERICKSON
A multiple choice quiz: Quentin
Tarantino’s “Once Upon
a Time in…Hollywood” is
a) a fi lm set in 1969 Hollywood;
b) a fi lm refl ecting the 1990s
when he was king of the world; c) a
fi lm about feeling far more precarious
now; or d) all of the above.
When Tarantino announced he
was planning a fi lm about Sharon
Tate and the Manson family, speculation
arose that it’d be tasteless exploitation.
But the director indulges
his violence fetish while also being
relatively generous and optimistic.
He’s backed away from the edgelord
tendencies of his 2015 “The Hateful
Eight,” which now seems like
both a symptom and diagnosis of
the ugliness in America that would
lead to Trump’s election.
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio)
A self-portrait by photographer John Dugdale.
each has a commitment to
keep working and producing art.
His motivation to continue, he explains,
ollywood M
Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood.”
is an actor whose career is suffering
from the changes facing the American
movie industry in the late ‘60s
as well as from his drinking. He
needs to go to Italy to keep working
in Westerns. However, his friend
Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who works
as a stuntman, is doing much better.
Rick lives next door to Sharon
STIMULUS PICTURES
is the same as the aspiration
he originally had in becoming
a fi lmmaker.
SONY PICTURES
Tate (Margot Robbie) and her husband
Roman Polanski. As the men
drive around LA, they see young female
hippies dumpster-diving and
hitching rides. These women turn
out to be Manson family members,
and Cliff takes a trip out to
the Spahn Ranch without realizing
what’s going on there.
Evans opens the fi lm with his
own story of experiencing the shift
in his vision that led to his diagnosis.
To convey what he went
through, he plays with the camera’s
focus onscreen, blurring images,
as in a walk through a New
York subway station — showing
just what he might see as his cane
navigates a path through a crowd
of faceless people.
“Vision Portraits” is equally
strong in presenting the other artists’
stories. Photographer Dugdale
is introduced through his gorgeous
cyanotypes, many of which feature
nude men or haunting self-portraits.
The photographer describes
how he suffered a stroke, which
caused paralysis, and went nearly
blind because of CMV retinitis,
an AIDS-related infection. Several
years later, he lost his sight completely.
His condition did not stop
➤ VISION PORTRAITS, continued on p.31
“Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood”
is a very cozy fi lm. It feels
like a place to chill out with Dalton
and Booth for 160 minutes. “Once
Upon a Time in… Hollywood” is
concerned with stardom and the
pathos of fading celebrity. Bruce
Lee (Mike Moh) drops by for one
pointless scene in which Rick kicks
his ass, reasserting his dominance
over a man who’d become a worldwide
superstar.
Tarantino lets “Once Upon a
Time in… Hollywood” sprawl to
the point of bloat. It’s a pleasure to
spend time with this fi lm’s characters
— given Tarantino’s reputation
as a nihilist, it’s easy to forget his
knack for evoking small pleasures
like riding in a car blasting rock
music. Even the gore is pushed toward
“what the hell am I seeing?”
➤ ONCE... IN HOLLYWOOD, continued on p.31
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