Burden of Dreams in 4K, presented by Werner Herzog

Burden of Dreams in 4K, presented by Werner Herzog

In person: Werner Herzog, filmmaker, and Harrod Blank, director Les Blank’s son

Los Angeles Restoration Premiere

In person: Werner Herzog, filmmaker, and Harrod Blank, director Les Blank’s son

In 1979, American independent filmmaker Les Blank (1935–2013) embarked on a journey with longtime friend and fellow filmmaker Werner Herzog into the jungles of Iquitos, Peru, to capture the lengthy production of Herzog’s troubled epic Fitzcarraldo (1982). The project—beleaguered by tense local politics, nervous financial backers, crew injuries, and an illness that led to Jason Robards dropping out of the lead role—took Herzog almost five years to complete. Throughout the production, Blank’s camera effortlessly and unobtrusively captures his friend’s Sisyphean struggle against time, the elements, his collaborators, and himself. Blank’s famously poetic eye for the quotidian focuses less on the daily grind of the doomed production and more on the small details that make up the world of this behind-the-scenes portrait. Considered one of the best films about filmmaking of all time, Burden of Dreams offers a sometimes harrowing, sometimes dryly humorous commentary on the complicated experience of fulfilling an artistic vision.

Programmed and note by K.J. Relth-Miller.
DIRECTED BY: Les Blank. EDITED BY: Maureen Gosling. WITH: Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards. 1982. 95 min. USA. Color. English, Spanish, German. 4K DCP. Digitally restored by Les Blank Films (Harrod Blank, Anthony Matt, Paul Cope, Maureen Gosling). Audio restoration and 5.1 mix by Endpoint Audio (Nick Bergh).

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation. 

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