VHS Tracking Presents:
The Documentaries Of Les Blank presented by Dan Bourke
Wednesday 21 August 2024 6:30pm
Goolugatup Heathcote
The Documentaries Of Les Blank: Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) and Gap-Toothed Women (1987)
Born in Florida, Les Blank cut his teeth making industrial films before founding his own production company, Flower Films, in the 1960s. Living in Berkeley, Blank independently produced his own documentaries, mainly focusing on American traditional music forms such as the blues, Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, and many more. Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) acts as a tribute to the greater glories of garlic, interviewing people about its history, consumption and culinary powers, even featuring filmmaker Werner Herzog (Blank also directed Burden Of Dreams about the making of Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo). Gap-Toothed Women (1987) is a valentine to women born with a space between their teeth, interviewing different people including model and actor Lauren Hutton. The charm and power of Blank’s documentaries is in how they focus on a simple, everyday topic, allowing the people interviewed to share their thoughts, providing insights both deep and humorous. Blank passed away in 2013, and his films are preserved by the non-profit company Les Blank Films (lesblank.com). His 1974 documentary about the musician Leon Russell, A Poem Is A Naked Person, was finally released in 2015 thanks to the efforts of his son, Harold Blank.
About the programmer and presenter, Dan Bourke
Dan Bourke is an artist based in Boorloo/Perth, WA. Working between studio, curatorial, and publishing practices, he appropriates and subverts existing models to explore themes such as the nature, ethics, and business of creative labour; economies within the contemporary art world; forms of representation; and systems of taste and value. He currently runs Benchpress, a small Risograph-based printing press, and Adult Contemporary, an artist-run initiative and bookshop. He was previously involved in the formation of other artist-run initiatives: Poetry Club (2010), Galleria (2011–12), and Pet Projects (2016–17). In 2009, he graduated with a BA (Art) (Honours) from Curtin University. Locally and nationally, he has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, curated and organised projects, and undertaken residencies.
VHS Tracking 