The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

June. 02,2017      
Rating:
6.7
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20x24 camera. For the next thirty-five years, she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. As pictures begin to fade and her retirement looms, Dorfman gives Errol Morris an inside tour of her backyard archive.

Errol Morris as  Self
Allen Ginsberg as  Self (archive footage)
W.H. Auden as  Self (archive footage)
Joni Mitchell as  Self (archival footage)
Bob Dylan as  Self (archival footage)
Anaïs Nin as  Self (archival footage)
Andrea Dworkin as  Self (archival footage)
Jack Elliott as  Self (archival footage)

Reviews

Lovesusti
2017/06/02

The Worst Film Ever

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Actuakers
2017/06/03

One of my all time favorites.

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Kaydan Christian
2017/06/04

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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Fleur
2017/06/05

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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Larry Silverstein
2017/06/06

Normally I'm an avid fan of acclaimed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven), but, to be honest, I was rather disappointed in this movie. It centers on the life and work of Elsa Dorfman, whose photographs using the large-format Polaroid technique have been praised for decades.Dorfman recounts in her own words her history and her artistry, and I did find her honesty and sense of humor engaging. However, we only get a glimpse of her striking photographs of writers, poets, and celebrities and I felt the movie would have been better served with her relating her personal experience with these photos and the people in them. Also, it's only towards the last third of the doc that we see her work with ordinary folk , and it seemed to me there was more of a story to be told there, as well.Although the film is only 1 hr. and 16 min. in length, the pacing was way too deliberate for my tastes, even getting tedious at times. Overall. I though there was a better tale to be told than what was presented in this doc unfortunately.

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Movie Watcher
2017/06/07

A peacefully satisfying and nicely edited off-camera interview which reveals the life and life's work of a portrait photographer, most of whose work was uniquely captured using one of the 5 (or so) huge 20x24 inch Polaroid cameras. Her portrait sittings consisted of two poses, and having lovingly saved the print not chosen/purchased by each client, she reflects on these 'b- side' but powerful images beginning in the early 70's of everyday people, a few of the famous, and many of herself and her family.

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