Director:
C. Scott Willis
Run Time: 82 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2010
C. Scott Willis
Run Time: 82 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2010
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The Woodmans
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THE WOODMANS is a delicate and haunting piece of art, a fitting showcase for the ethereal work of photographer Francesca Woodman. Francesca was a precocious talent who grew up in a family of driven artists and killed herself in 1981 when she was 22. Though she was unable to find fulfilling work after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, her photographs have attained a cult-like following since her death. The film explores Francesca’s life and work through the prism of her talented family: her mother Betty, a renowned ceramicist; her father George, a painter; and her brother Charles, a professor of Electronic Arts at the University of Cincinnati. Is growing up in a hot-house artistic environment a boon, or can it create oppressive competition? Her father notes that the personality characteristics that make Francesca intriguing are the same ones that tormented her. “There’s a psychic risk in being an artist,” he points out. “It may well have made life more difficult for her.” Francesca’s black-and-white photographs, and her early videos shot with a 1970s Sony camera, are incorporated into this multi-layered story. Fanciful excerpts from her diaries make her unique voice omnipresent. —B.B.
Sidebar sponsored by:
Film presented with support of
Community Partner
| Sidebars | Documentaries, Local Heroes, Film Is Art |
| Producer | Neil Barrett, Jeff Werner, C. Scott Willis |
| Cinematography | Neil Barrett |
| Editing | Jeff Werner |
| Director Bio | C. Scott Willis is a television news producer who has worked internationally. Scott grew up in Germany and England, attended the Cranbrook School outside Detroit, and captained boats in the Caribbean. Best known for working on “Nightline,” he has also produced documentaries for PBS Nova and the Discovery Channel. |
| Select Filmography | THE WOODMANS (2010) |
| Print Source |
Kino Lorber, Inc. kbrokaw@kinolorber.com www.kinolorber.com |
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Past Screenings
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 11:35 AMSunday, March 27, 2011 at 9:45 PM
Well made but boy oh boy....
This documentary was very well directed, and quite beautiful. But my god, why these parents decided to be interviewed is a mystery. They come across as cold, distanced, emotionally frigid monsters who were more concerned with their own art and their own careers than they were for their obviously troubled daughter. Horrific.
