Les Blank
1935 - 2013Les Blank (b. 27 November 1935, Tampa, Florida, United States) is an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians.
Blank attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a B.A. in English literature and an M.F.A. in theater. He had also studied communications at the University of Southern California.[1][2] Following his university education he founded his own production company, Flower Films, and most of his films since that time have been independently produced, often with the assistance of grants from cultural agencies, both governmental and non-governmental.
Most of his films focus on American traditional music forms including (among others) blues, Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, Tex-Mex, polka, tamburitza, and Hawaiian musics. Many of these films represent the only filmed documents of musicians who are now deceased.
Blank's films focusing on musical subjects often spend 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 Eats His Shoe (1980) and Burden of Dreams (1982), the latter about the filming of Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. The Maestro; King of The Cowboy Artists (1995) and Sworn To The Drum (1995) were Blank's last two films using 16mm film. He now works in digital. His most recent film, All In This Tea, which was co-directed by Gina Leibrecht, is a profile of the western Marin County-based tea importer and adventurer David Lee Hoffman. 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 lives in Berkeley, California. His company, Flower Films, is based in El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California.
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Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have a Ball
Les Blank
Ry Cooder, Terry Evans
Following a brief statement by Ry Cooder on his thoughts about performing - and improvising - on stage, this concert film depicts Cooder's 1987 live show in Santa Cruz, California, which was part of his "Get Rhythm" world tour.
Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have a Ball
Burden of Dreams
Les Blank
Candace Laughlin, Werner Herzog
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
Burden of Dreams
J'ai été au bal
Les Blank, Chris Strachwitz
Michael Doucet, Clifton Chenier
The definitive film on the history of the toe-tapping, foot-stomping music of French Southwest Louisiana. Includes many Cajun and Zydeco greats, featuring Michael Doucet and Beausoleil, Clifton Chenier, Marc and Ann Savoy, D.L. Menard, and many others.
I Went To The Dance
Always for Pleasure
Les Blank
An intense insider's portrait of New Orleans' street celebrations and unique cultural gumbo: Second-line parades, Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest. Features live music from Professor Longhair, the Wild Tchoupitoulas, the Neville Brothers and more. This glorious, soul-satisfying film is among Blank's special masterworks.
Always for Pleasure
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers
Les Blank
Werner Herzog
A zesty paean of praise to the greater glories of garlic. This lip-smacking foray into the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the stinking rose features chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and a flavorful musical soundtrack.
Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers
Chulas Fronteras
Les Blank
Flaco Jiménez, Lydia Mendoza
A complex, insightful look at the Chicano experience as mirrored in the lives and music of the most acclaimed Norteño musicians of the Texas-Mexican border, including Flaco Jimenez and Lydia Mendoza. Video includes bonus feature, Del Mero Corazon.
Chulas Fronteras
Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking
Les Blank, Maureen Gosling
Marc Savoy
Les Blank marries his passion for spicy, down home food and his love for Cajuns and Creoles in this mouth-watering, exploration of the cooking, and other enthusiasms, of French-speaking Louisiana. Features tangy music, and food by Marc Savoy, Paul Prudhomme, and other greats.
Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking of Louisiana
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
Les Blank
Werner Herzog, Tom Luddy
Directors Werner Herzog and Errol Morris make a bet which results in Herzog living up to his promise that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates of Heaven.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
All In This Tea
Les Blank
David Lee Hoffman, Song Diefeng
During the 1990s, David Lee Hoffman searched throughout China for the finest teas. He's a California importer who, as a youth, lived in Asia for years and took tea with the Dali Lama. Hoffman's mission is to find and bring to the U.S. the best hand picked and hand processed tea. This search takes him directly to farms and engages him with Chinese scientists, business people, and government officials: Hoffman wants tea grown organically without a factory, high-yield mentality. By 2004, Hoffman has seen success: there are farmer's collectives selling tea, ways to export "boutique tea" from China, and a growing Chinese appreciation for organic farming's best friend, the earthworm.
All In This Tea
Sprout Wings and Fly
Cece Conway, Alice Gerrard
Tommy Jarrell
Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form.
Sprout Wings and Fly
