"Figure out a way to tell lies through the camera" - Cindy Sherman
I enjoyed most of the documentary. I especially liked hearing her talk about her earlier work. How when she moved to New York she created a street persona for herself. As well as hearing her talk about dressing up as a child, really helps me as the viewer have perspective about her "untitled film stills" series.
I also enjoyed seeing some work that I was less familiar with. In particular her response to the censorship of certain art, was really clever. Using the mannequins and prosthetics to get around the limits was a unique way to make a stand.
She does position herself to always take a clear post-modern approach to her art making. She always responds to her situation by doing the opposite and quite often the most drastic move. This is a distinct response from the Post-Modernists who wanted to rebel from their idilic 50s upbringing.
Critiques:
The soundtrack is very distracting and also seems very dated now.
The random interviews with other people are not contextualized at all.
The doll and mask photos are just very creepy. Especially the masks. I'm not sure if she melts them to make them so distorted, but they made me very unsettled. (Which was probably her goal.)
On a side note I found it interesting that whoever filmed the documentary chose to place her in certain shots that mimic her film stills. The one that seemed the most intentional to me was this:
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