In this episode, we travel to South America with filmmaker Werner Herzog and documentarian Les Blank in the double feature: Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Burden of Dreams (1982).
It's one thing to watch a film where the main character moves a giant ship over a mountain, it's another to watch the documentary revealing the painstaking process of making cinema magic come to life. In a world that seemingly pushes us toward the easy and the comfortable, watching films about making impossible dreams come true unleashes a flood of questions: Where would we be without dreams? Where would we be without dreamers? What role does madness play in the pursuit of our dreams? Can you make art without suffering? How do dreamers evolve as they grow older?
Enjoy this conversation with Kelley and I about art, madness, dreams, dreamers, and the cinema of hardship.
