The Dryden will screen A Poem Is a Naked Person (Les Blank, U.S. 1974, 90 min., DCP).

Commissioned and alternately suppressed by its subject, Leon Russell, Les Blank's A Poem Is a Naked Person was finally released last year following the filmmaker's death. While it was accepted to the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, it never screened due to logistical complications. Legal and creative conflicts between filmmaker and subject left the documentary unreleased for more than forty years. Initially, Russell had hoped that the completed verité-style documentary would publicize his transition from session musician to solo artist, but Blank was more interested in the surrounding musical community, the contrast between the rural environs, modern blues, and the understandably concerning perspective that "fame is fleeting." Following Russell in concert and in studio recording sessions across Oklahoma and featuring performances by George Jones and Willie Nelson, Blank considered A Poem Is a Naked Person his masterpiece.

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2016-Jun-6]