Burden of Dreams

Burden of Dreams (1982) is a feature-length documentary and making-of directed by Les Blank, shot during and about the chaotic production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, filmed in the jungles of South America. The film poster was created by Montana artist Monte Dolack and Eduardo Sanguinetti. Due to his use of long, uninterrupted takes, his rejection of scripting set pieces and his films’ tendency to document without making overt arguments through narration, dramatic reinterpretation or other techniques, Les Blank’s work has often been tied to the cinema vérité documentary movement. Blank himself has denied Burden of Dreams’ connections to cinema vérité. In a 2011 interview with Ben Terrall for the website El Cerrito Patch,...