Educational Media Reviews Online

Meet Douglas Kirkland, sought after photographer of celebrities, and the shifting personalities and popular trends that span more than half a century of portraiture. With a superb, jazzy soundtrack, we follow Kirkland’s creative output across a landscape of personal interactions with some of the world’s most famous public figures. The film at its strongest is a popular survey of that work throughout shifting styles and changing camera technologies. At its heart, the focus in this documentary is on the warmth and good humor of a famous photographer and how this translates into any number of unforgettable images. Admirers of Kirkland praise his creation of revelatory moments in a still frame, portraits that viewers want to return to again and again. A teary eyed and world-weary Judy Garland during film production of Judgement at Nuremberg. Fashion designer Coco Chanel at unguarded moments. A young Francis Ford Coppola and collaborators on New Year’s Day 1970, snarling at the world from the rooftop of a San Francisco hotel. And perhaps some of the most character defining images ever captured of Marilyn Monroe.

That Click narrowly avoids lapsing into a panegyric, though the unceasing admiration for Kirkland honestly unfurls the tale of an artist madly in love with his work and the subjects who love to be covered by him. The film does not give a scholarly analysis of this chronicler of celebrity and some non-celebrity photojournalism, nor any probe into shifting forces disrupting the profession of photography. We learn about Kirkland’s family, love affair with wife Franciose (decidedly agnostic about celebrity), and his early interactions assisting fashion photographer Irving Penn. Kirkland’s connection to still photography on feature film sets spans recent cinema history and ranges from his work on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge or The Sound of Music to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Michael Jackson’s music video for Thriller. These get somewhat clipped treatment. Students of magazines will appreciate the central role in Kirkland’s career occupied by publications such as Look magazine and Life magazine. This is recommended viewing for many with either academic or practitioner interest in portraiture, magazine history, or the history of photography. A breezy survey of the work and life of an important photographer.

Awards:

Beverly Hills Film Festival 2020- Winner, Jury Award & Nominee, Best Documentary; Rome Film Festival 2019, Official Selection; Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020, Nominated Best Documentary Feature; American Documentary Film Festival 2020, Nominated Best US Documentary; Documentary Edge Festival 2020, Nominated DocEdge Award; Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival 2020, Feature Film Award Nominee; Los Angeles Italia Film Festival, US 2020, Documentary of the Year Nominee; PriFest, Prishtina International Film Festival 2020, Best Documentary Nominee

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