Don't Look Back
Jun 15 - Jun 21, 2007
D.A. Pennebaker, USA, 1967, 35mm, 96min
Sponsored by Emerald City Guitars, KEXP and Easy Street Records
D.A. Pennebaker's cinema verite account of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England has long been regarded as a landmark film. Pennebaker edited twenty hours of film down to the 90-minute final version. The result not only captured Dylan at a crucial moment in his career (he had just "gone electric") but also proved that the behind-the-scenes life of the rock star was as compelling as what he did on stage. The film is an intimate portrait of Dylan; we see him drunk in hotel rooms, wrangling with Joan Baez and berating the press. He tells one Time Magazine journalist, "I know more about what you do just by looking at you than you'll ever be able to know about me." DON'T LOOK BACK captures the twenty-three year-old Dylan, an enigmatic combination of talented performer and restless individual -- a man who refuses to acknowledge or accept the labels put on either himself or his music.
"Easily one of the best documentaries on any subject ever made, it is also one of the most cinematically influential." -Craig Marine, San Francisco Examiner