Hi-Def Termite Art:
Documenting Farber for Public TV PAINTER AND FILM CRITIC EXTRAORDINAIRE Manny Farber is an enigma that is hard to crack. And documentary filmmakers Paul Alexander Juutilainen and Robert Greaves have their work cut out for them as they craft a true-to-life, comprehensive overview of the celebrated artist-critic's multifaceted body of work in their current documentary-in-progress, Manny Farber: American Maverick, one of several films about artists being funded by San Diego's public television station, KPBS. Juutilainen says KPBS approached him last fall with the idea of doing a program about Farber. Having filmed the retired film critic on his home turf only a few times, Juutilainen says, it's too early to determine what shape the documentary (shot in the high-definition video format) will eventually take. But the freelance producer-editor is wary of falling into the traps that often beset many portraits of the artist as a familiar subject of documentary filmmaking. "It is difficult when you make a documentary about an artist, not to make it a grandiose statement about that person," explains Juutilainen, who won an Emmy for his 1998 documentary on philosopher Herbert Marcuse, Herbert's Hippopotamus. "And I think Manny would feel uncomfortable with that." The co-directors and cinematographer Michael Gerdes are aiming for something far more intimate, unpretentious, and
ultimately akin to the sorts of films that Farber champions in his famous essay, "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art" from his celebrated book, Negative Space. This intent to find truth in a kind of "termite art" in some ways circles back to the thematic concerns underscoring all of Juutilainen's films, including his other documentary film in the works, Salton City: Miracle in the Desert. "All of my work is about grounding people where they live," Juutilainen says. "It's the relationship of people to the space. I see myself working within the context of space and where people live. That's sort of my inspiration for my work, including Manny."
BY NEIL KENDRICKS
May 2002
THE INDEPENDENT
