Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians.

Life and career

Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935, in Tampa, Florida. He attended

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

, and

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, where he received a B.A. degree in English. He also briefly attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In the early 1960s, Blank studied filmmaking at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

and received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

. Following his university education, he worked for a production company called Operation Success, making films that he would later describe as "insipid films that promote business and industry." In 1967 he founded his own production company, Flower Films, with the release of ''God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance'', a short colorful document of Los Angeles'

Elysian Park Elysian Park is one of the largest parks in Los Angeles, California, United States, at 600 acres (240 ha). Most of Elysian Park falls in the neighborhood of the same name, but a small portion of the park falls in Echo Park. The park was created ...

Love-in. During

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ; also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to it being ...

in late February 1968, Blank,

Barry Feinstein Barry Feinstein (February 4, 1931 – October 20, 2011) was an American photographer and filmmaker, known for his photographs of 1950s Hollywood, the 1960s music scene, and his close personal and professional relationships with celebrities like ...

and others were in New Orleans as part of the original “underground filmmakers” crew of ''

Easy Rider ''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the S ...

'' which produced the acid trip segment of that movie, but was replaced afterwards by a more experienced crew. This was followed by ''The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins'' (1968) and ''The Sun's Gonna Shine'' (1968) about

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

blues musician

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its li ...

. He never went back to work making

industrial film An industrial video is a video that targets industry as its primary audience. An industrial video is a type of sponsored film (such as an educational film) which prioritizes pragmatism over artistic value. While the primary purpose of an educationa ...

s and all of his films were independently produced, often with the assistance of grants from cultural agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. Most of his films focused on American traditional music forms, including (among others)

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, Appalachian,

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

, Creole,

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (derived from the words ''Texas'' and ''Mexico'') is a regional American cuisine that originates from the culinary creations of Tejanos, Tejano people. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern ...

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

tamburitza Tamburica ( or ; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura) or tamboura (; ) refers to a family of long-necked lutes popular in Southeast Europe and southeastern ...

, and Hawaiian music. Many of these films represent the only filmed documents of musicians who are now deceased. Blank's films focusing on musical subjects often spent much of their running time focusing not on the music itself but on the music's cultural context, portraying the surroundings from which these American roots musics come. Other notable films on non-musical subjects include a film about garlic and another about gap-toothed women, as well as two films about German film director

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

: '' Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe'' (1980) and ''

Burden of Dreams ''Burden of Dreams'' is a 1982 documentary film directed and produced by Les Blank. Synopsis The film is a making-of documentary about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film '' Fitzcarraldo''. It was filmed on location in the jun ...

'' (1982), the latter about the filming of Herzog's ''

Fitzcarraldo ''Fitzcarraldo'' () is a 1982 epic film, epic Adventure film, adventure-Drama (film and television), drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog, and starring Klaus Kinski as would-be Rubber boom, rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzg ...

''. ''The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists'' (1994) and ''Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella'' (1995) were Blank's last two films using 16mm film. He later worked in digital video. One of his last films, '' All in This Tea'', which was co-directed with his creative partner Gina Leibrecht, was a profile of the western

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

-based

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

importer and adventurer

David Lee Hoffman David Lee Hoffman is an American tea importer. He also founded and directs The Last Resort, an ecology research center, and The Phoenix Collection, a personal tea collection. History David Lee Hoffman is a self-promoted 'tea guru' and was as ...

. In 2014, his last film '' How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy'' was completed shortly after his death by Gina Leibrecht, and was a portrait of the co-founder of Direct Cinema,

Richard Leacock Richard Leacock (18 July 192123 March 2011)
The Telegraph (Lon ...

. In 2007 Blank was awarded the prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal in the Arts. Les's son, Harrod Blank, has also become a documentary filmmaker. Blank lived in the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges, and overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de la Co ...

and for more than 30 years he was a resident of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, which celebrated Les Blank Day on Jan 22, 2013. His company, Flower Films, was based in

El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California El Cerrito (Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 census. El Cerrito was founded by refuge ...

. Blank died of

bladder cancer Bladder cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the bladder. These cells can grow to form a tumor, which eventually spreads, damaging the bladder and other organs. Most people with bladder cancer are diagnosed after noticing blood in thei ...

at his Berkeley Hills home on April 7, 2013. The nonprofit Les Blank Films continues to release Blank's work.

Legacy

Blank was the first documentary filmmaker to earn the

Edward MacDowell Medal The Edward MacDowell Medal is an award which has been given since 1960 to one person annually who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture and the arts. It is given by MacDowell, the first artist residency program in the United St ...

in 2007, a national honor given to one artist a year. He was awarded in 1990 the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

Maya Deren Award The American Film Institute Award for Independent Film and Video Artists, subtitled and generally known as the Maya Deren Award, was an award presented to filmmakers and video artists by the American Film Institute to honor independent filmmaking. ...

for outstanding lifetime achievement as an independent filmmaker. In 2011, the

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Film ...

honored Blank with a career achievement award. Two months prior to Blank's death, the

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...

announced that Blank had been accepted to receive its 2013 Outstanding Achievement Award along with a retrospective of his work at the festival, which took place from April 25 to May 5, 2013.

Filmography

*1960 - ''Running Around Like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off'' *1960–1985 - ''Six Short Films of Les Blank'' *1961, - ''Strike!'' *1962 - ''And Freedom Came?!'' *1965 - ''

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

'' *1967 - ''Christopher Tree'' *1967 - ''Thailand Moment'' *1968 - ''The Blues Accordin' to

'' *1968 - ''God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance'' *1969 - ''The Arch'' *1969 - ''The Sun's Gonna Shine'' *1970 - ''Chicken Real'' *1971 - ''Spend It All'' *1971 - ''A Well Spent Life'' *1973 - ''Dry Wood'' *1973 - ''Hot Pepper'' *1974 - '' A Poem Is a Naked Person'' *1976 - ''

Chulas Fronteras ''Chulas Fronteras'' is a 1976 American documentary film which tells the story of the norteño or conjunto music which is played on both sides of the Mexico–Texas border. It was directed by Les Blank. A CD soundtrack of the music played in ...

''≠ *1978 - ''More Fess'' *1978 - '' Always for Pleasure'' *1979 - ''Del Mero Corazon'' *1980 - ''

Poto and Cabengo Poto and Cabengo (names given, respectively, by Grace and Virginia Kennedy to themselves) are American identical twins who used an invented language ( Cryptophasia) until the age of about eight. The girls were apparently of normal intelligence. ...

'' (cinematographer) *1980 - '' Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe'' *1980 - '' Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers''≠ *1982 - ''

'' *1983 - ''Sprout Wings and Fly'' *1984 - '' In Heaven There Is No Beer?'' *1985 - ''Battle of the Guitars'' *1985 - ''Cigarette Blues'' *1986 - ''

Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis and the News (formerly known as Huey Lewis & The American Express) are an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually achieving 19 top ten singl ...

: Be-Fore!'' *1987 - ''Gap-Toothed Women'' *1987 - ''Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart'' *1988 - ''A Blank Buffet'' *1988 - ''

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and h ...

and the Moula Banda Rhythm Aces'' *1989 - ''The Best of Blank'' *1989 - ''J'ai Été Au Bal / I Went to the Dance'' *1990 - ''Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of

and Creole Cooking'' *1991 - ''Innocents Abroad'' *1991 - ''Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge'' *1991 - ''Marc & Ann'' *1991 - ''Puamana'' *1994 - ''The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists'' *1994 - ''My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge'' *1994 - ''Roots of Rhythm'' (cinematographer) *1995 - ''Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella'' *2005 - ''The Maestro Rides Again'' *2007 - '' All in This Tea'' (co-directed with Gina Leibrecht) *2014 - ''How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy'' (co-directed with Gina Leibrecht) *2015 - ''Les Blank's Student Films'' ≠

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

inductee (former 1993; latter 2004)

References

External links

Flower Films/Les Blank official site
*

''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', 9 March 2005 *Courtney Fathom Sel
interviews Les Blank
, SouthCoastToday.com, May 7, 2008 * (interview with Les Blank)
''Les Blank’s Cinéma Vitalité''
an essay by Andrew Horton at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Les 1935 births 2013 deaths American documentary filmmakers Deaths from bladder cancer in California Artists from Berkeley, California People from Tampa, Florida Tulane University alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni People from El Cerrito, California

Life and career

Legacy

Archive

Filmography

References

External links