 FESTIVALS: *CPH:DOX (Denmark) * Dok.Fest Münich (Germany) * Göteborg International Film Festival (Sweden) * IDFA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) * Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK) * One World International Film Festival (Czech Republic) * ZagrebDox (Croatia) * Melbourne International Film Festival (Australia) * DocHouse London (UK) * DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival (Finland) * Encounters South African International Documentary Festival (Cape Town, South Africa) * Ambulante (Mexico, Mexico) * Lemesos Int'l Documentary Festival (Cyprus) * Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina) * New Zealand Film Festival Trust (Wellington , New Zealand) * EDOC- Encuentros del Otro Cine International Documentary Film Festival (Quito, Ecuador) * Urban Nomad Film Festival (Taipei, Taiwan) * Bath Film Festival (UK) * DOCSMX (México DF, Mexico) * Zurich Film Festival (Switzerland) * Bergen International Film Festival (Norway) * Message to Man International Film Festival (St Petersburg, Russia) * Inconvenient Films Documentary Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania) * Leeds International Film Festival (UK) * Dokufest (Kosovo) * DMZ DOCS (Bucheon-si, South Korea) * Haifa International Film Festival (Israel) * Camerimage - The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Toruń, Poland) * San Francisco International Film Festival (USA) * São Paulo International Film Festival (Brazil) * SXSW South by Southwest (Austin, Texas, USA) * Antenna International Documentary Film Festival (Sydney, Australia) * True/False Film Fest (Columbia, MO, USA) * One World Romania (Bucharest, Romania) * Brighton Film Festival - CINECITY (UK) * Le Voci dell'Inchiesta (The Voices of the Investigative Journalism) (Pordenone, Italy) * Istanbul Film Festival (Turkey) * Bratislava International Film Festival (Slovak Republic) * Docs Against Gravity Film Festival (Poland) * Sofia International Film Festival (Bulgaria) * Exile Room (Athens, Greece) * IFI Documentary Film Festival (Ireland) * Dharamshala International Film Festival (Dharamshala, Dist Kangra, India) * Lincoln Center (New York, USA) * Panama International Film Festival (Ciudad de Panama, Panama) * Shanghai International Film Festival (China) * DocPoint Tallin (Estonia) * fARAD - Documentary Festival (Romania) * Assen International Filmfestival (The Netherlands) * Norwegian Short Film Festival (Oslo, Norway) * Objectifs (Singapore) * Carbonia Film Festival (Italy) * Canberra International Film Festival (Australia) * Days of Cinema in Palestine (Ramallah, Palestine) * ScreenDocs Expanded (Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia) * Trondheim Dokumentarfestival TRD (Norway) * Kino Xenix (Zürich, Switzerland) * Macao International Documentary Film Festival (Macao) * Ankara International Film Festival (Turkey) * Stockfish Film Festival (Iceland) * Eskisehir Film Festival (Turkey) * Fotofabrika festival (Sofia, Bulgaria) * Filme im Schloss (Wiesbaden, Germany) * MATE - Museo Mario Testino (Lima, Peru) AWARDS: * 10th annual Cinema Eye Honors - Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking - Outstanding Achievement in Editing - Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography * Nominated for Best Documentary Feature by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards * Best Documentary - Camden Film Festival * Best Documentary - Traverse City Film Festival * Sheffield Grand Jury Award - The jury described the film as “a work that´s both expansive and intimate, formally ambitious and morally humble”. “Though this filmmaker has travelled the world to tell others stories, her real bravery with this film is when she makes the decision to turn the camera on herself, questioning her own ethical choices and exposing her own personal fragilities,” the jury added. “A film unlike any other, intuitively constructed to reflect ideas and choices and emotions, rather than a standard narrative thread, it invites the viewer to contemplate and feel these experiences along with her.” * The Grand Jury Prize at the Montclair Film Festival * The jury prize for Best Documentary Feature at San Francisco International Film Festival - The jury noted in a statement: “We honor Cameraperson for its compassion and curiosity; for its almost tangible connection to subjects and humble acknowledgment of its own subjectivity; for its singular enfolding of memoir, essay and collage; for its perfect expression of the vital collaboration between director and editor; and for its disarming invitation for us to participate in the meaning and construction of the work, and by extension the meaning and construction of documentary cinema itself.” | Cameraperson
Kirsten Johnson, the cinematographer for "Two Towns of Jasper", "Pray the Devil Back to Hell", "The Oath", and "Happy Valley", among many others, is the woman behind the camera who shot some of the most memorable documentaries to have played at the Sundance Film Festival. This year, she presents an extraordinary and deeply poetic documentary of her own, which investigates what it means to film and be filmed. As a visually radical memoir, Cameraperson draws on the remarkable footage that Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection. REVIEWS: * ''Talk of The Town'' interview with Kirsten Johnson including Illustrations - by Tad Friend * At Home With a Very Modern, Very Artistic Family - by Graig Hubert - The New York Times * “Cameraperson” — This was one of the most experimental films at Sundance, and also one of the most enlightening. It’s a tapestry of short vignettes pieced together by cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. She weaves a visual memoir which ends up being rather hypnotically beautiful. It reminded me of the masterful “Life in a Day.” - by Aaron Peck | HJnews * Cameraperson shouldn't work, and that's what makes it kind of amazing. A series of shots from disparate works, sewn together they provide one of the most salient, moving insights into documentary process while being entertaining, provocative and eminently cinematic. I adored the film, and feels like something vital and timeless. - by Jason Gorber | twitchfilm.com * Cameraperson [New Frontier] ★ ★ ★ ★ On one level, Cameraperon sounds like an idea from a horribly pretentious stoner: Have some documentary cinematographer edit a bunch of b-roll and excess footage from different projects into one film. But as Dziga-Vertov managed to do with the equally nutty "film a single New Soviet Day" premise, Kirsten Johnson was able, thanks to thematic links, to turn around an always accessible and usually fascinating stream of consciousness, jumping from one topic to the next as easily as breathing, while circling around and around a handful of general themes—something a great monologist does. Also like Vertov, she foregrounds her presence, especially early on, and in some humorous ways (sneezing shakicam FTW!). There is some personal footage of her own family relations that touch on some of the same topics—self-recognition, birth, death, play, memory and forgetting—as her footage for others does. In other words, the film is abouteverything, juxtaposing the entire life span of one baby and the ashes of an old woman. “Stories” of a kind develop, and Johnson really sticks the landing with a return to Bosnia for one view of family history, back to her own life for another. Pauline Kael once was asked why she never wrote a memoir or autobiography and she replied "I think I have." Kirsten Johnson has filmed hers. - by Victor Morton | Salt Lake City Weekly * The film has enjoyed a hearty festival run since its premiere, including serving as the closing night selection at New Directors/New Films and accolades at Full Frame Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Montclair Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. - by Kate Erbland | Indiewire * Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson's 25-year of spare documentary footage offers a fascinating and personal glimpse of the world. - by Jordan Hoffman | theguardian * A veteran cinematographer constructs a memoir out of high-profile documentaries. - by John DeFore | The Hollywood Reporter * Sundance Exclusive: 2 Clips From The Poignant Documentary 'Cameraperson' - by Kevin Jagernauth | The Playlist * 'Cameraperson' is a Transcendent Documentary Experience. - by Eric Kohn | Indiewire * Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson delivers a uniquely insightful memoir-cum-critical-treatise on the nature and ethics of her craft. - by Nick Schager | Variety * Surprisingly Emotional And Heartfelt Documentary 'Cameraperson' Is A Stunning Achievement - by Katie Walsh | The Playlist PRESS IMAGES: (click to preview) 
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