Lets Get Lost

Oct 26 - Nov 01, 2007

Bruce Weber, USA, 1988, 35mm, 119 min

Sponsored by La Spiga, Easy Street Records and kbcs 91.3fm , Co-presented by Northwest Film Forum and the Earshot Jazz Festival

In the 1950s, Chet Baker's jazz trumpeting, edgy, intimate crooning and pretty boy good looks epitomized West Coast "cool."When famed photographer Bruce Weber caught up with him three decades later, time and drug addiction had ravaged his life and angelic beauty with deep valleys and crevasses. LET'S GET LOST artfully intercuts gorgeous black and white footage of the gaunt latter-day Baker, with images of the young jazz trumpeter in iconic 1950s early television and film appearances and photographs by William Claxton. Shot by Weber and cinematographer Jeff Preiss during what would turn out to be Baker's final year, the film also includes interviews with friends, family, lovers and associates. This transfixing, bittersweet portrait of the jazz legend won the Critics' Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. Nearly 20 years since its premiere and nearly 15 since it has been seen in any medium, we're pleased to present a brand new 35mm print of a recent restoration done by Weber himself.

Click here to see a clip

"Jazz music and film have rarely been spun together more evocatively."–Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES

"It's the music doc as film noir, with a vampirish city-of-night gleam that suits the subject and his darkly romantic sound."-Jim Ridley, THE VILLAGE VOICE

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