More than forty years after its filming and some two following its director’s passing, the world is about to receive what is, in some sense, the final film from Les Blank: A Poem Is a Naked Person, which chronicles rock star Leon Russell during recording and touring sessions conducted between 1972 and 1974. Now that the central subject has overcome their distaste for this picture — “it’s not my idea of a documentary,” he said semi-recently — a release, supervised by Harrod Blank (Les’ son) and Russell himself, is imminent.
What was once “rarely […] shown in public except at non profit institutions with Blank in attendance” had a premiere-of-sorts at this year’s South by Southwest, there receiving strong reviews, and the first trailer has now arrived. You, like I, may watch it and think about the ways films might evolve. What was once a music documentary his since become a time capsule of a specific era and place in the United States, to say nothing of the ends to which this stands as a model of film restoration. All of these things — and, judging by the reviews, the intricate means by which this portrait is created — should make Poem an unmissable piece of work.
Have a look at the trailer below, and read here for more on Blank’s great body of work:
Synopsis:
An ineffable mix of unbridled joy and vérité realism, A Poem Is a Naked Person presents the beloved singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell as filmed by documentarian Les Blank between 1972 and 1974. Blank’s camera lets us into the world of Russell and his friends and fellow artists in and around his recording studio in northeast Oklahoma, capturing intimate, off-the-cuff moments and combining them with mesmerizing scenes of Russell and his band performing live. This singular film about an artist and his community never got an official theatrical release and has attained legendary status. Now, after more than forty years, it can finally be seen and heard in all its rough beauty.
A Poem Is a Naked Person will enter limited release on July 1.