Les Blank

Les Blank is an award-winning independent filmmaker based in Berkeley. He began making films in 1967, and his early work chronicles subcultures of all kinds but focuses on cultural traditions of food, music, and dance. He was described in the New York Times as “a master of movies about the American idiom … one of our most original filmmakers.” The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins is about the Texas blue singer; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers captures Alice Waters and other Bay Area garlic enthusiasts in the early 1970s; and Gap-Toothed Women focuses on the charms of uneven teeth. Other films take up Polish-American polka dancing, Appalachian fiddlers, Afro-Cuban drumming, Louisiana French cooking, and the indefatigable travels of a tea connoisseur. Blank’s work has won numerous awards, and major retrospectives have been mounted at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Film Theater, London; Cinematheque Francais, Paris; Film Forum, New York; and other institutions. In 1990, Blank was honored with the Maya Deren Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement from the American Film Institute. He is the associate producer and creative advisor of White Gloves.