A really nice video this, capturing a passion for archive that’s often hard to express. Jamie Roberts has found an interesting subject in the mind and workings of Dick Jewell – cult-famed artist, photographer and filmmaker.
Seven-minutes in length, ‘Moving Pictures‘ focuses on Jewell’s love of movement in people. Surrounded by his self-shot footage archive that started in the early ’70s, he describes his work throughout and in to present as “a collection of thoughts I’m constantly refining.”
Using dance as his narration over the last few decades, Jewell was there filming when traditional African movements influenced the club jazz dancers and the breakers, to where hip-hop legends were moving like Village People, through skinhead culture, vogeuing at Kinky Gerlinky and over to Massive Attack in Jamaica. He’s produced some timeless workings with material that not a lot of other people could have captured. As he talks we switch between him editing on the floor or pushing tape through a projector to some of his films on the aforementioned cultural moments, he even ties them the movements together through body movements as they cut in and out of each other.
It can’t be overstated how beautifully Roberts has shot this, capturing the vibe of an old school film archivist perfectly, shooting in the shadows as Jewell chain smokes rollies surrounded by tape. Massive respect to the man, check out his story below.
via J A M I E R O B E R T S
A journey into the incredible archive of Dick Jewell, a visual artist obsessed with movement – both physical and cultural. Dick’s exotic subjects include Vivienne Westwood, Neneh Cherry, Grandmaster Flash, skinheads, B-boys, drag queens and rave dancers – to name just a few.