Kirsten Johnson

Cameraperson

Cameraperson

A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife; an intimate family moment at home with the director: Kirsten Johnson weaves these scenes and others into her film Cameraperson, a tapestry of footage captured over her twenty-five-year career as a documentary cinematographer. Through a series of episodic juxtapositions, Johnson explores the relationships between image makers and their subjects, the tension between the objectivity and intervention of the camera, and the complex interaction of unfiltered reality with crafted narrative. A work that combines documentary, autobiography, and ethical inquiry, Cameraperson is a moving glimpse into one filmmaker’s personal journey and a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 2016
  • 102 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.78:1
  • English, Bosnian, Arabic, Dari
  • Spine #853

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New high-definition digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Editing “Cameraperson,” a new program featuring director Kirsten Johnson, producers Marilyn Ness and Danielle Varga, and editors Nels Bangerter and Amanda Laws
  • In the Service of the Film, a roundtable conversation with Johnson, producer Gini Reticker, and sound recordists Wellington Bowler and Judy Karp
  • Excerpts from two 2016 film festival talks with Johnson, including one between her and filmmaker Michael Moore
  • The Above, a 2015 short film by Johnson
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda and reprinted writings by Johnson

New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New high-definition digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Editing “Cameraperson,” a new program featuring director Kirsten Johnson, producers Marilyn Ness and Danielle Varga, and editors Nels Bangerter and Amanda Laws
  • In the Service of the Film, a roundtable conversation with Johnson, producer Gini Reticker, and sound recordists Wellington Bowler and Judy Karp
  • Excerpts from two 2016 film festival talks with Johnson, including one between her and filmmaker Michael Moore
  • The Above, a 2015 short film by Johnson
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda and reprinted writings by Johnson

New cover by Eric Skillman

Cameraperson
Credits
Director
Kirsten Johnson
Producers
Kirsten Johnson
Producers
Marilyn Ness
Executive producers
Abigail Disney
Executive producers
Gini Reticker
Editor
Nels Bangerter
Cinematographer
Kirsten Johnson
Coeditor
Amanda Laws
Coproducer
Danielle Varga
Original vocals
Kathryn Bostic
Music
Wellington Bowler
Music
Carla Kihlstedt
Music
Dino Rešidbegović
Rerecording mixers
Pete Horner
Eric Milano
Sound edit and design
Eric Milano

Current

At the Frame’s Edge: Editing Cameraperson
At the Frame’s Edge: Editing Cameraperson
In her award-winning 2016 film Cameraperson, documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson turns the spotlight on her own work and yet rarely appears on camera. Instead, we hear her voice off-screen, emerging intermittently throughout the film’s elli…
Cameraperson: Getting Close
Cameraperson: Getting Close

Kirsten Johnson interrogates the thorny ethics of nonfiction filmmaking in her intriguingly elliptical blend of essay, travelogue, and memoir.


By Michael Almereyda

Connor Jessup’s Top 10
Connor Jessup’s Top 10

Canadian actor and filmmaker Connor Jessup’s third short film, Lira’s Forest, is an official selection at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

Dustin Guy Defa’s Top 10
Dustin Guy Defa’s Top 10

Dustin Guy Defa’s second feature, Person to Person, is now playing in theaters.

A Night at the Wing with Kirsten Johnson
A Night at the Wing with Kirsten Johnson

Kirsten Johnson joined Illeana Douglas for an evening of conversation and a screening of Cameraperson at the Wing, a women’s club that recently opened in Manhattan.

By Hillary Weston

Persona, Wiseman, African Cinema in the Spotlight

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Persona, Wiseman, African Cinema in the Spotlight
In his latest Cinema ’67 Revisited column for Film Comment, Mark Harris looks back at the rapturous critical reception of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona upon its release, calling the film a monument “to a moment at which serious critics became comple…