Kathryn Bigelow sneaks out of study hall to direct Patrick Swayze in Point Break (1991).
Kathryn Bigelow began as a painter, moved to Conceptual Art, and finally landed behind the movie camera. Hollywood does not know what to make of her — every studio turned down The Hurt Locker— and she has refused to cooperate with any mythmaking about herself. Her career could be filed under “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” as long as fun includes guns, chase scenes, collaboration with James Cameron, and sexual/emotional/physical violence.
Bigelow spoke at a POW Festival benefit screening of The Hurt Locker here in Portland in 2009. She professed to be baffled by the label “female filmmaker”, but I think it would be more accurate to say she was bored by it. One year later, she is richer by two Oscars.
Here’s the two stars from Point Break talking about that film (which has one scene shot in Oregon). Say what you will about Bigelow, she does have an unerring eye for male beauty, and she consistently manages to keep the focus on her work, and not herself.
2 responses so far ↓
1 | Oregon Movies, A to Z // Mar 18, 2010 at 3:52 pm
[...] to have better luck than last year’s special screening of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which went on to win Best Picture, but this year’s roster of over 50 films [...]
2 Scorecard: Top Five | Oregon Movies, A to Z // Mar 19, 2010 at 10:41 am
[...] Kathryn Bigelow/Oregon filmmaker Share This: [...]
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