Cameraperson (2016) - Kirsten Johnson

Deeply personal, yet universally expansive about the human condition, Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson finds the celebrated documentary cinematographer delving into her vast trove of film footage, providing the viewer with an extensive collection of her experiences through the lens of her camera, footage which spans decades detailing our shared sense of humanity all over the world.  A personal memoir, Cameraperson finds a filmmaker baring her life's work for the viewer, exhibiting a series of episodic juxtapositions which at first feel somewhat disjointed, only to reveal deeper truths, both intimate and universal, as the film progresses.  Spanning various continents and cultures, Cameraperson's vignettes reveals the intimacy of personal connection, while also touching on both the grandoise nature of the world and life itself.  Cameraperson is a love letter to the importance of documentary filmmaking and the overall power of image, with the film revealing how Kirsten Johnson's lens is her form of connection to the world, providing her with a sense of interconnectivity with those she documents.  The film can feel like a series of unrelated vignettes at times, but Cameraperson slowly evolves as it progresses, detailing various aspects of Kirsten Johnson's own personal life, which she also documents with her camera, touching on the underlying truths related to how the camera itself is an essence of her being.  The film touches on the complex relationship between unfiltered reality and crafted narrative, but Cameraperson never shows much interest in detailing the academic aspects of documentary filmmaking, instead focusing much more on the intimacy it details through both Kirsten Johnson's personal life and those of the subjects in which she documents. The line between her own personal life, whether it be her mother's sickness or her young twin children, and those in which she documents becomes blurred, as the film beautifully details the universal pain, joy, struggle, and successes, which connect all of humanity.  Featuring a vast array of emotions, both positive and negative, Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson is a thoughtful and intimate examination of a filmmaker's life's work, detailing the true importance of image, documentation, and journalism, while delivering a piercing study of the human condition.

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