INTERVIEW WITH CHERYL DUNN
Interview with Cheryl Dunn , Film Maker , Photographer and the director and producer , editor of Everybody Street .
Cheryl Dunn is a brilliant film maker . We reviewed her “ must see ” film , Everybody Street in this issue simply because it ’ s a great movie about street photography , and also because I ’ m not sure it ’ s as well known in the community as it should be . I reached out to Cheryl and asked if she had a few minutes to talk about the movie and what might come next ...
Thanks for talking to us Cheryl , first up what inspired you to make Everybody Street ?
I was asked by a museum in lower manhattan to come up with a film idea that could play within an Alfred Steiglitz exhibition . i wanted to make a film about photographers who had followed in his foot steps and gone out and created substantial bodies of work about the streets of NYC . after showing the short at the museum and then being invited to show it at the Tate modern i went back into the project to expand it to feature length because there was so much more to say .
How difficult was it to book interviews with the photographers ?
As I said The film was initially a commission from a museum to make a short My total production time for that short was just 3 months . Some of the people I approached had timing issues but I would say I got most of the photographers I reached out to . Joel Meyerowitz was a family friend of one of my producers and he was my first interview .
I knew Bruce Davidson ’ s gallerist and went through those channels .. they were both so lovely but you have to remember if you are approaching someone , and asking them to give you their time you shout think about a few things : why should they care , what can i ask them that they haven ’ t been asked numerous times before . so i really did my research and because i am a shooter myself , i focused on more insider questions or the psychology of street shooting ... I also shot 16mm of all the photographers . Many of them have made films themselves and I think they appreciated that .. I asked Bruce to go into the subway with me , and he watched me labor over loading a 100 foot load in my beaulieu 16mm camera . He gave me more of his time maybe because he acknowledged my efforts and was he cool with me .. when I went back into shooting for the feature I was able to get more people because I had the short to show and timing was better for some .
Who was the most interesting person to interview ? Our guess would be Bruce Gilden , but we could be wrong ..?
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