American Cinematographer - March 2022 - 8

Letter From the President
Filmmaker Mikhail
Kaufman and his
movie camera.
PORTRAIT BY MICHAEL M. PESSAH, ASC.
IN THIS MARCH 2022 ISSUE, we note that two years have gone by
since the beginning of a worldwide public health crisis. We will not characterize
these two years, or cry about the traumas faced. Suffice to say:
These years have presented remarkable challenges.
This month will also see the presentation of our 36th Annual ASC
Awards ceremony. We hope you find the event an inspiration as we celebrate
the best work in cinematography in the many genres and distribution
pathways that are now possible.
In the spirit of the season of award presentations, it is time to turn
away from our everyday challenges and remind ourselves of core creative
ambitions for cinematographers. And so, this issue is focused on
image-making aesthetics, leading off with Sir Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC's
discussion with our intrepid editor-in-chief, Stephen Pizzello, about six
films that were foundational in shaping who he is as a filmmaker.
This discussion is in the tradition of ASC members passing on our
experiences to a younger generation - through this magazine, of
course, but also through our ASC mentorship program. In this month's
Shot Craft column, Jay Holben writes about mentorship. Many of us in
the ASC participate in mentoring through our Vision Committee. The
ASC Mentorship Program is co-chaired by Society members Patti Lee
and Todd A. Dos Reis, under the leadership of the Vision Committee
co-chairs - members Cynthia Pusheck, John Simmons, Polly Morgan
and Fernando Argüelles. The Vision Committee began under the leadership
of past president Kees van Oostrum. It should be clear that it takes
many of our members to create and run the mentorship program. It is
in the best spirit of our Society that more than 80 people per year are
partnered with ASC members to informally face and shape their future
as cinematographers.
This spirit began with cinematography itself: In 1929, the Russian
cinematographer Dziga Vertov made Man With a Movie Camera, one of
8 / MARCH 2022
the first " city " films portraying the unique lives of cities as they awaken.
Vertov established the notion of " this is how it's done, " by putting himself
and his younger brother, camera operator Mikhail Kaufman, in the
movie, filming the camera as it was filming - thus creating one of the
original behind-the-scenes, or BTS, moments. (Dziga and Mikhail were
the older brothers of Society member Boris Kaufman.)
Vertov's motivation seems to have been to turn a camera on everyday
people, and to also show the effort it took to create the film, including
the camera as it was cranked. It is a very Russian film, a literal
montage from beginning to end, which we would now refer to as experimental
filmmaking.
Many in our mentorship program have the opportunity to visit the
productions of ASC members and to experience the life of the cinematographer,
as in Man With a Movie Camera. A glimpse of the just-industrialized
Russian society is presented in MWAMC, but the film is about
more than that; it shows the building blocks of filmmaking, in whirlwind
fashion. The heart of filmmaking and the craft of cinematography is on
the screen: the dramatic moment. It is literally the beginning of mentorship
- in a movie.
Hopefully, we can now get back to what we love to do - and talk
about - with our own movie cameras, and leave trauma behind.
Stephen Lighthill
President, ASC
American Cinematographer - March 2022

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