Anyone who knows me knows that Shaft is my favourite film of all-time. There are a multitude of reasons why, and I'm positive I've mentioned a handful of them here many times over the years.
Gordon Parks was a hugely talented man, and, along with Ernest Tidyman, Isaac Hayes and Richard Roundtree, one of the main architects of that iconic piece of pop culture history. But Shaft was only a small part of his life's work. Photographer, writer, director, musician...Parks was endlessly gifted.
"You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery," Parks said in a 1998 interview. "You can show things that you like about the universe, things that you hate about the universe. It's capable of doing both."
3 comments:
Although not exactly a hero of mine, I was saddened to hear of the passing of offbeat comedy pioneer Ivor Cutler on the same day as Gordon Parks.
Deadpan, Scottish and strange. But how we laughed.
It's been a weird ol' 24 hours. As well as Gordon Parks and Ivor Cutler, there's also been African Bluesman Ali Farka Toure, British comedy veteran John Junkin, and Dana Reeve, widow of Cristopher Reeve.
Damn you, typos! Damn you!, I meant Christopher Reeve.
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