Criterion “Studio Visit” Video
My Criterion contact emailed to ask if their video producer Tara Young could shoot a behind the scenes doc on the making of the “Dick Johnson Is Dead” cover. I replied, “I’m good with this so long as Ms. Young assures us that she won’t hold back, and will aggressively get the footage she needs.”
Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened.
She even took it up a notch, visiting my office to shoot a longform interview to fill out the story. This is how I came to narrative the story of Kirsten Johnson’s new Blu-ray cover. Here, in part, is what they wrote for their in-house blog:
The gently surreal and comical bent of Chris Buck’s sensibility is apparent in the photographs he took for our edition of Dick Johnson Is Dead. In the latest episode of “Studio Visits,” he guides us through his collaboration with director Kirsten Johnson and her father, Dick Johnson, whose dementia is the focus of the documentary and had worsened since the project was completed in 2020.
Buck’s off-kilter approach pairs beautifully with Johnson’s tender and fantastical treatment of Dick in the film. Buck is sensitive to the familial and professional dynamics in the pair’s relationship, and his interpretation of their bond adds another layer to the documentary’s metafictional world.
Video: The Criterion Collection’s “Studio Visits: Chris Buck” (by Tara Young)