‘The Secret Life of Lance Letscher’ Clip: SXSW Doc Shows the Painfully Beautiful Chaos of An Artist’s Mind — Watch
Sandra Adair, best known for her work as editor on “The Before Trilogy” and “Boyhood,” is making her directorial debut with the premiere of her documentary “The Secret Life of Lance Letscher.” The film bowed at this week’s SXSW Film Festival, still rolling on down in Austin, Texas.
READ MORE: How ‘Boyhood’ Editor Sandra Adair Helped Shape The Film’s 12-Year Evolution
Adair captures the painfully beautiful work of local Austin artist, Lance Letscher. According to the official synopsis of “The Secret Life of Lance Letscher”: “After 30 years of working in the visual arts, Letscher has proven himself to be a modern master of collage. While developing a new project for the legendary South Congress Books in Austin, Texas, Letscher reflects for the first time on camera about his chaotic rise from an art student at the University of Texas to the subject of renowned solo exhibitions all over the world.”
A gripping element of Adair’s filmmaking is her ability to mimic the slicing and piecing together of Letscher’s collages in her editing. The meticulous attention to detail that Letscher amounts to the slicing of clocks or shoes, is reflected in the seamless, but bouncing editing style of the film.
Our exclusive clip demonstrates Adair’s finesse not only as an editor, but as a filmmaker. The delicate extreme close-ups of eyes and the blade of the knife, are contrasted with staccato cuts from collage to collage, which flexes not only Letscher’s ability to create as an artist, but also Adair’s.
‘READ MORE: ‘The Secret Life of Lance Letscher’ Goes Inside the Mind of Work of a Collage Artist
Collaborating with several other Austin locals, the documentary boasts contributions from stalwarts of Texas cinema, including a propulsive original score by Graham Reynolds (“A Scanner Darkly” “The Before Trilogy”).
Take a look at Adair’s rhythmic editing below, along with the film’s first poster:
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