Title: Life and other anxieties /
Authors: Pincus, Edward,; Ascher, Steven,
Year: 1977
Subjects: Pincus, Edward.; Ascher, Steven.; Motion picture producers and directors; Camera operators.; Hospice care.; Filmmaking.; College teachers.; Chemotherapy; Motion pictures Production and direction; Homeopathy.; Minneapolis (Minn.)
Abstract: In 1975, the filmmakers Ed Pincus and Steven Ascher took their 16mm cameras to Minnesota. Filming random encounters as well as old friends, their ninety minute film is a cinematic record of some of the sensibilities and concerns of the 1970's. Ed Pincus described the project this way...I was invited to “make any film I wanted as long as it was shot in Minneapolis. David Hancock, a filmmaker friend in Vermont, who coincidentally grew up in Minneapolis, had just asked me to film him. He had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer in his early thirties and wanted me to document the craziness of his dying days, as he was buffeted from chemotherapy to New Age cures recommended by friends. I didn’t have the stomach to follow much of David’s last days. Meanwhile, Steve Ascher and I teamed up to go to Minneapolis. We wanted to ask strangers what in their lives they would like to have filmed. For me, it was almost like an act of expiation." Ed Pincus initially studied philosophy and photography at Harvard, he then turned his attentions to filmmaking, producing a number of important documentaries such as Black Natchez, Panola, and his very personal look at his own life, as well as friends, family and lovers, entitled, Diaries (1971-1976). In 1969 Pincus wrote the Guide to Filmmaking, a widely read guide for independent filmmakers. With his co-director Steve Ascher, Pincus expanded the guide, transforming it into The Filmmaker’s Handbook which has been published in multiple editions since 1984.