Image Makers: The Adventures of America’s Pioneer Cinematographers (2019)

(On Cable TV, September 2020) As a glimpse into a foundational but often forgotten piece of Hollywood history, Image Makers: The Adventures of America’s Pioneer Cinematographers is exactly what it says in the title: a short documentary about the first defining cinematographers. Implementing a director’s vision is where the ideas hit reality, and as director Daniel Raim’s Image Makers delights to show, the early pioneers of the form had to put nearly everything together from scratch and jury-rigged equipment. Hand-cranked cameras, magnesium flares and specially-built carts were the tools of the trade, but Image Makers spends more time exploring the artistic meaning of the images created by those pioneers, from the sophistication of the late silent era (with quite a bit of time deservedly spent talking about Sunshine) and the early efforts to recapture the flexibility of cameras during the early sound era. Citizen Kane obviously gets a mention thanks to the efforts of Gregg Toland, who managed to synthesize and update a number of techniques in service to Orson Welles’ ambitious story. Also briefly discussed is the career of James Wong Howe, who battled prejudice in a Caucasian-dominated town to become a leading cinematographer of his era. Many movie clips illustrate the topic, along with interviews with various experts. While Image Makers does not attain the heights of other documentaries due to its scattered subject matter, it’s highly instructive and revelatory for cinephiles, as it can whet anyone’s appetite for further movies on the same topic. To tweak a saying, amateurs may talk about direction, but professionals talk about cinematography.