Deborah Harry Does Not Like Interviews
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Meghan Fredrich
Genres: biography, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, provocative
An archival collage cuts together decades of press junkets where Deborah Harry parries condescending, sexist questions with surgical evasion. The film is the rope-a-dope of a frontwoman refusing to be flattened by interviewers.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A music doc made entirely out of bad questions — finally, the right way in. The subject is the silences, not the singles, and that's the only Blondie film worth making.
An archive-essay built entirely from press-junket condescension — Fredrich's collage is what Harry didn't say, in the Adam Curtis register. A real piece of curation.
An archival collage built entirely from press junkets where Harry parries demeaning questions — the doc is what she didn't say. That's a brilliant edit-as-thesis idea and Fredrich gets the rope-a-dope rhythm.