Cameraperson

Kirsten Johnson has been the principal cinematographer on more than forty documentaries. For her, “The joys of being a documentary cameraperson are endless . . . and yet, the dilemmas I face while holding my camera are formidable.” In Cameraperson, she assembles a selection of her footage—whose subjects include a Nigerian midwife, an Afghan boy, and Jacques Derrida, as well as her twin children and her mother—to craft both a self-portrait and an insightful examination of her field. “The questions of what you need permission to film, what is watchable, and what should be remembered permeate the movie” (Tad Friend, The New Yorker).