I've Never Been A Fisherman
2018 · 5m · USA
Directed by Joe Stankus
Genres: documentary, experimental
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, humorous
An Instagram street photographer recounts the story behind a compelling image — and what unfolds is stranger than the photo itself.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Instagram street photographer confessional that 'keeps slipping its own genre' — exactly the kind of slippery short that rewards attention. Five minutes of Spalding Gray DNA is welcome.
Stankus deploying the confessional talking-head format only to let it slip its own genre is the Herzog-Marker move done at four minutes, and the user comments on the page summary register the genuine 'genius ending.' A small Spalding Gray-adjacent gem.
4:39 confessional talking-head from Joe Stankus that the comments say has a genius ending — that's a structure where the entire investment is in the tonal slip the page summary teases. The brevity is the gambit.