The Story
The Story
I will set myself a big problem.
I will go down there, I will photograph this thing,
I will come back, and develop it.
I will print it and I will mount it.
And put it on the wall - all in twenty four hours.
I will do this to see if I can just grab a hunk of lightning.
Dorothea LangeGrab a Hunk of Lightning is a 90-minute film on the photographer, Dorothea Lange. And this film is also an investigation of the creative process, and the cost of a creative life.
Dorothea Lange was a photographer whose work is most often identified with images of the Great Depression. She photographed the disenfranchised -- the migration to the West during the Dustbowl, extreme poverty in the streets of San Francisco and throughout the United States, and the Japanese Internment. Lange summed up her approach to photography when she described her direct method for creating social change: “We have let them speak to you -- face to face. Lange also recorded intimate human emotions, describing the critical public policies and decisions which helped to speed the urbanization of her home state, California. In short, she photographed the backdrop of the history of her time, the history she experienced, through the eyes of humanity.
But this film is more than a biographical re-telling of an artist’s life, beyond a narrative of America's 20th century. This film simultaneously illuminates these historic moments while revealing the searing personal price to the phenomenal photographic achievements of Lange. The film invites you to look closely at Lange's family dynamics, her muses – both men – and her mission with the camera. As the film reveals her work, it also reveals the cost of a creative life – the cost to her family - her children, her marriages, and her extended family. We see her great silver gelatin successes, and, at times, her personal failures.
There is also a third, and critical dimension to the film - a dimension that only a family member could weave into this story. As this film fluidly intertwines both Lange's professional work with her creative process, it is the personal access and familial perspective from the filmmaker Dyanna Taylor, Lange’s granddaughter, that will truly give this film its personal dimension and familial insight to Lange's creative life.
SCRIPT TREATMENT
Grab a Hunk of Lightning follows Dorothea Lange’s life in seven acts. Each act includes selected Lange visuals, which both set the tone and are a key structural element.
Act 1, The Early Years: The Gift of Seeing
At an early age, Lange’s grandmother told her, “To you, everything is beautiful.” And this proved to be a guiding force with Lange. Her battle with polio at the age of 7 also informed her life, and allowed her to feel comfortable around the poor and the disabled, easily becoming a part of their world.
Act 2, Bohemia, San Francisco: Grab a Hunk of Lightning
Lange’s life took a dramatic turn when Maynard Dixon walked into her studio. A true bohemian, bon vivant and painter, Dixon and Lange were married, and had two sons, Daniel and John. Dixon introduced her to the social and art scenes of San Francisco, and to the sweeping landscapes of the West he so loved.
Act 3, Paul Taylor: Art for Life’s Sake
Lange met her second husband, economist and UC Berkeley professor Paul Taylor, when he saw her photographs at a gallery in Oakland. Taylor and Lange were soon married, and he shared his social scientist training with her, giving her a scientific method of recording not only images, but also the background stories behind those images. Taylor showed Lange that her photographs were more than just striking; that they were powerful vehicles for social change. Her work style changed, and Lange became much more focused on the use and purpose of the photographic image.
Act 4, War: Little Lady with a Soft Voice
Lange was hired by the federal government to document the internment of Japanese citizens in World War II, but her progressive views made her want to tell the full story – the loss of jobs, of homes, of culture. Her photographs were strong and powerful, but not what the government had in mind. The conflict between the government’s demands and her need to accurately document reality literally made her sick, and battles with ulcers, and eventually cancer, took their toll.
Act 5, Death of a Valley
In 1956, Lange convinced Life Magazine to hire her to document the effects of a large dam-building project on the Putah Creek in Northern California documenting the rich and rural lives in a small community that would soon be under hundreds of feet of water. Her poignant images brought to light the cost of urbanization to rural areas and the environment.
Act 6, Travels: Contemplation of Things as They Are
Paul Taylor took a series of jobs to highlight the land use, water use, and the plight of poor rural economies around the world. Although struggling with illness, Lange took her cameras and accompanied him, creating more personal works than in her previous assignments. For the first time, she was photographing the world out of context. She didn't know the social situation – and it freed her. She didn't have an agenda. Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Egypt, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bali, Russia…all was fertile landscapes for her practiced eye.
Act 7, Returning Home: The Right Time
Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Lange realized her time was short. She turned from world travel to photographing her children and grandchildren, her surroundings, and working on a final retrospective - a one-person show planned at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.