Film Review: "Dick Johnson Is Dead" (2020).

From the director of Cameraperson comes Dick Johnson Is Dead. This documentary film directed by Kirsten Johnson and co-written by Johnson and Nels Bangerter. As her father nears the end of his life, filmmaker Kirsten Johnson stages his death in inventive and comical ways to help them both face the inevitable.

Johnson was inspired to make the film after having a dream in which "there was a man in a casket and he sat up and said, 'I'm Dick Johnson and I'm not dead yet'". When she pitched the idea to her father, she asked him, "Dad, what if we make a movie where we kill you over and over again until you really die? And he laughed". The film incorporates Johnson family photographs and home movies, including that of Richard Johnson's wife who died from Alzheimer's disease in 2007.

To explore Johnson's immersive film is to witness a unique, powerful memoir unfolding and unfurling. It is a fascinating and largely successful exploration of a form, a body of work, and of an incredibly talented cinematographer. Utterly captivating. Memories shape who we are as individuals. With that context in mind, the film becomes one individual's noble attempt to capture those unforgettable moments in her life and forever memorialize them. Gorgeous and captivating; full of themes of war, motherhood, and oppression; this is a compelling, moving look at the creative process and the people behind the camera. The film is one of those rare viewing experiences that may really test your patience, and only you will know if that's a good or bad thing. This is a film I won't soon forget, and a big part of me wants other notable documentary cinematographers to make movies just like it, telling their stories in a similar fashion. The film comes alive with possibilities in every scene, mutating and evolving from moment to moment like an engrossing conversation. This is the essay film at its finest, a personalized meandering through ideas and stories, at once autobiographical and universal. It serves as a peek behind the curtain of documentary filmmaking, exposing even more than what's usually shown in the genre. It's a fascinating glimpse into the work of the person behind the camera, composing and fretting, making sure every shot is aesthetically sensible. An autobiography of sorts, the film demands we think beyond Johnson's own extraordinary career and reflect upon our own status as observers, and the ethical and emotional responsibilities that come with it. Slow, subtle, yet ultimately mesmerizing, the film is a very personal testament to one exceptional filmmaker's love affair with her profession. By drawing no distinction between her personal and professional lives, Johnson suggests that she values her work as much as her family. Johnson's film is nothing less than a masterpiece of documentary cinema, one that welcomes the complexities and contradictions of subjectivity. A life behind the lens is examined in the film, a fascinating, purposely disjointed documentary from Johnson.

Simon says Dick Johnson Is Dead receives:

Also, see my review for Cameraperson.