In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey
{{Infobox film
| name = In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey
| image = In Search of Blind Joe Death poster.jpg
| caption = Film poster
| director = James Cullingham
| producer = James Cullingham
| writer =
| starring =
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing = Caroline Christie, Jessica Anne Cullingham
| distributor =
| released = {{film date|df=yes|2012|09|29|Raindance}}
| runtime = 57 minutes
| country = Canada
| language = English
| budget =
}}
In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey is a 2012 documentary film that focuses on the life of the musician John Fahey, who is considered the father of American primitive guitar.{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Dale|title=Reinventing the Steel|url=http://www.johnfahey.com/pages/ac1.html|website=John Fahey|publisher=Acoustic Guitar|date=January–February 1992|ref=1}} The documentary was filmed and based in Washington D.C., where Fahey was born; the Mississippi Delta, where Fahey met and recorded with many musicians; and Salem, Oregon, where Fahey resided during the last 20 years of his life. The documentary includes a series of video clips of Fahey's performances and interviews with those who were involved with the musician in his personal and professional life up until his death in 2001.{{cite news|author=Mark Jenkins |title='In Search of Blind Joe Death': Documentary spotlights legendary area guitarist John Fahey|newspaper=Washington Post|date=October 24, 2013|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-documentary-spotlights-legendary-area-guitarist-john-fahey/2013/10/24/fd22e8b2-3cc8-11e3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html?noredirect=on }} The film gives viewers an understanding of what Fahey's personal world was like, and how he worked as a musician through animation, interviews, video clips, and documentations of Fahey.
The film premiered at the 2012 Raindance Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/news/19264/new-john-fahey-documentary-to-be-screened-at-raindance|title=New John Fahey documentary to be screened at Raindance - The Wire|work=The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music|accessdate=24 May 2020}}
Interviewees
Reception
Music critic Richie Unterberger called the film "well done" and respectful, but noted the film "could have been more comprehensive."{{cite web|author=Unterberger, Richie |title=John Fahey Documentary Review|date=July 10, 2014|url=http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/tag/review-of-in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey/ }} Writing for The Quietus, Sean Kitching praised the film as a "wonderful, expressionist documentary [that] admirably portrays the many facets of the man behind the music and the myth."{{cite web|author=Kitching, Sean |title=Fahey's A Jolly Good Fellow: In Search of Blind Joe Death Reviewed|date=February 21, 2013 |url=http://thequietus.com/articles/11451-john-fahey-in-search-of-blind-joe-death-review }} Conversely, Jake Cole, writing for Spectrum Culture, summarized the film as "never [rising] above the mark of a mildly adventurous TV special, and its stylistic cleverness cannot disguise that this is, at heart, not far off from a cursory overview" and claimed "there is a gap here that makes Cullingham’s inventive and atypical approach to artist biography feel incorporeal. It avoids the pitfall of over-explaining an artist with a dull information-dump, but it nevertheless fails to fully join its impressionistic melding of image with Fahey’s music to any deeper revelations, which results in a play of signs without a signifier."{{cite web|author=Cole, Jake |title=In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey|date=August 20, 2013 |url=https://spectrumculture.com/2013/08/20/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey/ }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|2213938}}
- {{Official website|http://www.tamarackproductions.com/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey}}
- [https://www.highballtv.com/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey at Highball.TV]
Category:Documentary films about blues music and musicians
Category:2012 documentary films
Category:Canadian animated documentary films
Category:2010s English-language films
Category:2010s Canadian animated films
Category:English-language documentary films