Promised Land (1974), Duet for Cannibals (1969)
The Films of Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag is likely the most quoted writer and critic of Photography. Her 1977 collection of essays On Photography has been described as a “rhetorical ‘tool kit’ that photography theorists and critics carry around in their heads”. Some may be unaware that Sontag also produced work for the screen and made four films: Duett för kannibaler (Duet for Cannibals) 1969, Broder Carl (Brother Carl) 1971, Promised Lands 1974, and Unguided Tour (Letter from Venice) 1983.
In her essay 1996 essay Decay of Cinema she writes: “Perhaps it is not cinema that has ended but only cinephilia — the name of the very specific kind of love that cinema inspired. Each art breeds its fanatics. The love that cinema inspired, however, was special. It was born of the conviction that cinema was an art unlike any other: quintessentially modern; distinctively accessible; poetic and mysterious and erotic and moral — all at the same time. Cinema had apostles. (It was like religion.) Cinema was a crusade. For cinephiles, the movies encapsulated everything. Cinema was both the book of art and the book of life.”
Promised Lands 1974
“Journalist Susan Sontag made this film as a photographic essay on the State of Israel. In it, she meditates on the (1974) situation of the country and its people and her feelings about Israel and its future.” ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
Duett för kannibaler (Duet for Cannibals), 1969
Unguided Tour (Letter from Venice) 1983
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