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| Manny
Farber: A Life in Progress (WT) “In the beginning was Manny Farber,” filmmaker and writer Paul Schrader once observed. A Life in Progress (WT) is a feature-length, HDTV documentary about the life and work of Manny Farber, the acclaimed modernist painter and visionary film critic, who is one of the most important cultural personalities in postwar America. He was amongst the first to champion American Action Paintings and the first to launch the concepts B-Movies and Underground Films. His quirky, energetic prose and unique painterly view on film and art has influenced a generation of filmmakers, painters, novelists, and critics. A Life in Progress explores Farber’s dual career as a painter and a writer on movies. It will be a journey spanning nearly 60 years intersecting defining moments of American culture in the 20th century -- from Abstract Expressionist paintings to Pop Art; from American Male Action Films to European New Wave Films. Farber’s life experiences have been many and varied. Beginning in the 1940’s, Farber wrote for an assortment of popular magazines such as The Nation, The New Republic, Time Magazine, Film Comment and Sight and Sound. He exhibited with the first generation of Abstract Expressionists painters. He had personal and professional relationships with leading figures within the American avant-garde, such as Jackson Pollock, Walker Evans, Clement Greenberg, and James Agee. Furthermore, Farber’s worldwide reputation as a giant of film criticism lead to astounding interactions with filmmakers such as Paul Schrader, Francis Coppola, and Wim Wenders. This remarkable journey will bring to the viewer a unique exploration of contemporary American culture at the stages when it significantly evolved. A Life in Progress employs a visual style that corresponds to Farber’s obsession with “space” -- an energetic perception that is truly American. It is a space with multiple perspectives, constantly evolving and pushing the borders of landscape, taking the viewer beyond the film frame, beyond the easel painting, and into new terrain of experience. To capture this unique approach to art and to convey the sense of detail and vistas of landscape so crucial to Farber, the documentary is being produced in High Definition.
In addition, interviews with a diverse group of filmmakers, artists, historians, journalists, and writers -- such as Martin Scorsese, Susan Sontag, Peter Bogdanovich, and Wim Wenders – will be interspersed with footage of Farber painting in his studio, quotes from his writings, and film clips from directors Farber has written about -- such as Howard Hawks, John Houston, Preston Sturges, Werner Fassbinder, and Jean-Luc Godard. This intriguing mosaic will paint a portrait of a congenial and uncompromising maverick of visual culture. It has been noted that Farber paints with a filmmaker’s vision and writes with a painter’s eye. A Life in Progress will provide an overdue tribute to an artist who has fundamentally transformed the way we look at paintings and watch movies. It will be journey of rediscovery not only to a new generation of art and film buffs, but to anyone interested in the popular visual art forms of contemporary American society. Michael Flaster is Executive Producer and Producer for this project. Paul Alexander Juutilainen is Producer/Director, Mark Quint is Executive Producer and Anna Quint is Associate Producer.
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