In the News - Santa Cruz Film Festival Santa Cruz Sentinel Addressing Charis Wilson and Edward Weston's relationship When springtime brings its smattering of rain showers and chilly mornings to the Central Coast, close at its heels is the Santa Cruz Film Festival, with its promises of hot popcorn, warm theaters and multitude of independent movies from all over the world. The festival draws long lines and regularly sells out. This year's selection features two films that were made in Santa Cruz and one in Watsonville. A notable choice is "Eloquent Nude," a documentary about the passionate, tumultuous relationship between Charis Wilson and modernist photographer Edward Weston. Wilson, now 92 and a longtime Santa Cruz resident, met Weston when she was 19. She became his model and appeared in several of his best-known photographs. The two married and later divorced but remained close. "I have a hard time taking it seriously. It seems a little unreal," said Wilson about the documentary. "I thought they did an incredibly good job" The inspiration for the film was Wilson's memoir, called "Through Another Lens: My Years With Edward Weston," for which she spent years poring over papers, photos and documents that had accumulated over the course of her life, and interviewing several old acquaintances and friends. Wendy Madar, a family friend and a journalist, helped to write the book. "The film did a good job following the memoir," said Wilson. Wilson's daughter, Rachel Harris, watched the film for the first time with her mother. At one point, Wilson asked the director to stop it so she could cry. "The hard part was for her to relate to her 20-year-old self on the screen," said Harris. Wilson said she enjoyed watching the scenes of her life played out on the screen. "I was impressed with the film, which is so unlike anything I could have imagined," said Wilson. "I was impressed as hell" Contact Todd Guild at tguild@santacruzsentinel.com. |