All of Les Blank's films now available on DVD!
visit www.lesblank.com
Les Blank is a prize-winning independent filmmaker, best known for his series of intimate films about the lives and music of people who live at the periphery of American society, including The Blues Accordin.. to Lightnin' Hopkins, Always for Pleasure, and In Heaven There Is No Beer? Currently, Les has three documentaries in the works, including All In This Tea .. about an eccentric tea importer who travels to China in search of the perfect leaf; Being There .. about founder of Direct Cinema, Ricky Leacock; and Butch Anthony (working title) .. about Alabama folk artist Butch Anthony.
Among Les Blank..s numerous awards are the British Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for Burden of Dreams, for which he also won the Golden Gate Award Best of Festival at the San Francisco International Film Festival, 1982; Grand Prize, Melbourne Film Festival, 1985 for In Heaven There Is No Beer? for which he also won the special Jury Award at Sundance; Blue Ribbon, American Film and Video Festival for Dry Wood, Hot Pepper, Always for Pleasure, Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, Burden of Dreams, Gap-Toothed Women, The Best of Blank, J'ai Ete Au Bal, Yum, Yum, Yum! and Marc and Ann.Major retrospectives of Les Blank's films have been mounted in Los Angeles at FILMEX in 1977; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1978 and 1984; New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1979; the National Film Theatre, London, 1982; Cineteca Nacional, Mexico City, 1984; the Cinematheque Francais, Paris, 1986; the Independent Film Week, Augsburg, Germany, 1990; the Leipzig Film Festival, 1995; and the Sofia Music Film Festival, Bulgaria, 1998.In 1990, Les Blank received the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award for outstanding lifetime achievement as an independent filmmaker. In 1989-1990, Blank was the Distinguished Filmmaker-In-Residence at San Diego State University, and in 1991, Adjunct Assistant Professor in film at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also the Louis B. Mayer filmmaker-in-residence at Dartmouth College and a directing fellow at the Sundance Institute in Utah.In 1999 his films were chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for full restoration. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, PBS, and the BBC.
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