Experimental film-maker who put pleasure and pain at the core of his work
Stephen Dwoskin, who has died of heart failure aged 73, was among those film-makers whose work is recognisable from just a few frames. A trembling, handheld camera, often observing people from an intimate, low angle; studies of women moving, dancing, stripping, making love to Dwoskin himself, or simply looking into the lens with a steely, defiant gaze; a relentless, droning, musical accompaniment. This is the impression left by his best-known films, Dyn Amo (1972), Behindert (1974) and Central Bazaar (1976).
This way of looking and filming came directly from Dwoskin's physical circumstances. Born and raised in New York, he contracted polio at the age of nine during the 1948 epidemic. "They didn't expect me to live," he recalled in 2009. "I was a whole history of polio in one person." He spent much of his life on crutches, and later used a wheelchair.
Stephen Dwoskin, who has died of heart failure aged 73, was among those film-makers whose work is recognisable from just a few frames. A trembling, handheld camera, often observing people from an intimate, low angle; studies of women moving, dancing, stripping, making love to Dwoskin himself, or simply looking into the lens with a steely, defiant gaze; a relentless, droning, musical accompaniment. This is the impression left by his best-known films, Dyn Amo (1972), Behindert (1974) and Central Bazaar (1976).
This way of looking and filming came directly from Dwoskin's physical circumstances. Born and raised in New York, he contracted polio at the age of nine during the 1948 epidemic. "They didn't expect me to live," he recalled in 2009. "I was a whole history of polio in one person." He spent much of his life on crutches, and later used a wheelchair.
- 7/12/2012
- by Adrian Martin
- The Guardian - Film News
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