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PEOPLE & ARTSFriday 12 January 2018
Filmmaker revisits David
Bowie to document final years
This image released by HBO shows the late music legend David By JOHN CARUCCI ered five significant years last two albums.
Bowie in a scene from the documentary, “David Bowie:The Last Associated Press in Bowie’s career, which in- In the music video for the
Five Years,” which debuted Jan. 8 on HBO. NEW YORK (AP) — After cluded the creation of Zig- song “Lazarus” from his fi-
British filmmaker Francis gy Stardust in 1971 and his nal album, Bowie seems to
Associated Press Whately captured David 1983 commercial success, foreshadow his own death.
Bowie in his 2013 film, “Da- “Let’s Dance,” but Whately He’s shown lying in a bed
vid Bowie: Five Years,” he found something intriguing with his face in bandages
thought documenting the about his later days. and with coat buttons for
life of his musical hero was “A period of his life that was eyes. The video, directed
complete. Turns out he was of the most interest was by Johan Renck, was shot
mistaken. those last five years when after Bowie learned he had
The end of Bowie’s life was he returned after his heart terminal cancer and de-
equally interesting to What- attack from some kind of cided to end treatment.
ely as he centers on the art- seclusion and ... (was) back Whately said the music
ist’s final projects in the new in the spotlight in some way video can be construed as
HBO documentary, “David even though he didn’t give Bowie saying goodbye, but
Bowie: The Last Five Years.” any interviews,” Whately when it comes to the stage
It started airing this week, said. play of the same name, “I
which marks two years The second documentary don’t think it’s that simple.”
since Bowie died at age 69. focuses on Bowie’s final two “The subject matter is inter-
“It was only after his sort albums — “The Next Day” esting, but does it prophe-
of untimely passing that and “Blackstar” — as well size that this was his way of
the BBC approached me as the stage play “Laza- saying goodbye? I’m not
again and said, ‘Would I do rus,” which took its inspira- sure it does,” he said.
another film?’ And initially tion from the 1976 film, “The Whately contends the idea
I was wary of doing any- Man Who Fell to Earth,” of a stage play of “Lazarus”
thing else because I felt I’d which starred Bowie. was something Bowie had
already made a film, while “Lazarus” made its debut considered since the be-
not being completely de- weeks before Bowie died ginning of his career.
finitive, did look at the key in January 2016. The score “I think he first talked about
years of his career certainly consists of the artist’s music it in 1967 ... so, it was some-
up to the 1980s,” he said. throughout his career, in- thing that had been on his
The first documentary cov- cluding selections from his mind,” he said.q
New study finds male dominance
in Hollywood unchanged
By JAKE COYLE just 4 percent of cinema- office, the percentage of
AP Film Writer tographers were women. female directors rose from
NEW YORK (AP) — Women “The film industry has ut- 4.2 percent in 2016 to 7.3
made up just 18 percent terly failed to address the percent in 2017. But that
of all the directors, writers, continuing underemploy- number was still less than
producers, executive pro- ment of women behind the the 8 percent in 2008.
ducers, editors and cine- scenes,” said Martha M. As they have in the past,
matographers who worked Lauzen, the study’s author. the studies give statisti-
on the top 250 American “This negligence has pro- cal evidence to the wide-
films released last year, ac- duced a toxic culture that spread alarm about gen-
cording to a new study. supported the recent sex- der equality in Hollywood.
The 20th annual “Celluloid ual harassment scandals More than 300 women in
Ceiling” study on the be- and truncates so many entertainment recently
hind-the-camera employ- women’s careers.” formed the initiative Time’s
ment of women was re- Last week, a study pub- Up to push for equal female
leased Monday by San Di- lished by the University of representation among ex-
ego State University’s Cen- Southern California Annen- ecutives and to help sexual
ter for the Study of Women berg found that among harassment victims defend
in Television and Film. the top 100 films at the box themselves.q
The results show virtually no
change in the last 20 years
for women in Hollywood.
In 1998, the same calcula-
tion of behind-the-scenes
jobs for women was 17 per-
cent.
The study found that in last
year’s top 250 films, 25 per-
cent of producers were
women, 11 percent of di-
rectors were women and
