On Detour With Manny Farber

27 min, HDCAM. January 2004. Producer, director, and editor.

On Detour with Manny Farber is a documentary about the work of the acclaimed modernist painter and celebrated film critic, Manny Farber.

Using Farber’s own paintings as the starting point, the documentary is a mosaic of small tales about how Farber looks at American culture and his own interaction with it.

Farber’s own voice is the program’s guide escorting the viewer through this journey – interspersed with quotes from his writings, images of Farber at work in his home studio, and film clips from Farber’s favorite directors.

In addition, the documentary shows Farber scrutinizing his work with local friends and colleagues such as art historians Sheldon Nodelman and Sally Yard, filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin, and his wife and long -time collaborator, painter Patricia Patterson.

Each painting sparks a vigorous sequence that combines Farber’s unique view on space, scale, repetition, memory, and systems of looking.