The Times of Bill Cunningham is a film by Mark Bozek. Mark and Amon take a moment to converse about the inception, journey and process of taking Mark’s film to the silver screen.
Show Notes
- One minute interview
- Fox Style News
- QVC
- This is not a drill…
- Bill Cunningham
- Carnegie Hall Studio
- Suzette Cimino
- Beta Camera
- Bernadine Morris
- His camera is pencil
- Be quiet more
- Diana Vreeland
- Duke and Duchess of Windsor
- Isabel Toledo
- Ruben Toledo
- Bill Cunningham New York
- Editing is the Art of Omission
- Archive of 3 Million Photographs distilled to 25,500 Photographs then curated to 515 Photographs
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- Answers exponentially more questions
- Learning more about Bill
- Anna Wintour
- Weegee
- Museum of the City of New York
- ICP
- Harold Chapman
- Incredible New Yorker
- Fashion Historian
- Trish Jarvis Simonson
- Protect Bill’s legacy
- Orangeburg, NY
- “Didn’t know Armani from Salami…”
- “If they don’t pay you then they can’t tell you what to do.”
- Lead with heart and passion
- Up at 4am
- The New York Times
- Born in a Funeral Home in Detroit
- Cinema Art Centre in Huntington, Long Island
- AIDS Epidemic
- Willi Smith
- Pat Cleveland
- Great voice of New York
- Wrote voice over script
- Augusten Burroughs
- Sellevision
- Running with Scissors
- Bradley Cooper
- Wedding Crashers
- Joy
- Barry Diller
- David O. Russell
- First Time Filmmaker
- Scar Tissue
- Research and Proving the Research
- Get it right
- Tell a good story
- Ezinma
- Discovery
- Reached out to Moby
- Lift Me Up
- Taking Shots in the Dark
- Lee Strasburg
- Butler to the Stars
- Webster College, St. Louis
- Ruthless, Focus and Passion about the work
- Toukie Smith
- Profit and Loss Statement
- Incredibly Lonely at the Top
- Lincoln Center
- New York Film Festival
- André Leon Talley
- Greenwich Entertainment
- Steven Jones
- Parsons
- Xenon
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Iris Apfel
- Never Stop, Stay Curious
- Relentless Curious
- Nostradamus of fashion
Stay Up to Speed with The Times of Bill Cunningham
Website: https://www.billcunninghammovie.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bcunninghamfilm/
Film Synopsis
Narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker, The Times of Bill Cunningham features incredible photographs chosen from over 3 million previously unpublicized images and documents from iconic street photographer and fashion historian Bill Cunningham. Told in Cunningham’s own words from a recently unearthed 1994 interview, the photographer chronicles, in his customarily cheerful and plainspoken manner, moonlighting as a milliner in France during the Korean War, his unique relationship with First Lady Jackie Kennedy, his four decades at The New York Times and his democratic view of fashion and society.
Director’s Statement
I began work on this film on the day of Bill Cunningham’s death in 2016 when I discovered a long-lost interview I had done with him from 1994.
Ten minutes into viewing the interview, I knew this would be my first film.
Eighteen months after discovering the interview, I was given rare access to Cunningham’s remarkable archive of photographs and documents. Not only did Cunningham photograph his beloved New York City for more than six decades but he safeguarded – and in fact slept on – his treasure trove of photographs and documents. His previously unpublished archive will likely become one of New York City’s most important.
Bill Cunningham
William John “Bill” Cunningham Jr. (March 13, 1929 – June 25, 2016) was an American fashion photographer and fashion historian for The New York Times, known for his candid street photography. He began taking candid photographs on the streets of New York City, and his work came to the attention of The New York Times with a 1978 capture of Greta Garbo in an unguarded moment. Cunningham reported for the paper from 1978 to 2016. During that time he never missed one single week of reporting.
Cunningham was born into an Irish Catholic family and raised in Boston. He never lost his Boston accent. He had two sisters and an older brother. His parents were religious and ran a strict household. He had his first exposure to the fashion world as a stock boy in Bonwit Teller’s Boston Store. He later said his interest in fashion began in church: “I could never concentrate on Sunday church services because I’d be concentrating on women’s hats.” After attending Harvard University on scholarship for two months, he dropped out in 1948 and moved to New York City at the age of 19, where he worked again at Bonwit Teller, this time in the advertising department.
Not long after, Cunningham quit his job and struck out on his own, making hats under the name “William J.” He was drafted during the Korean War and was stationed in France, where he had his first exposure to French fashion. After serving a tour in the U.S. Army, he returned to New York in 1953 and his work as a milliner. In 1958, a New York Times critic wrote that he had “cornered the face-framing market with some of the most extraordinarily pretty cocktail hats ever imagined.” He also worked for Chez Ninon, a couture salon that sold copies of designs by Chanel, Givenchy and Dior. His clients in the 1950s included Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn and future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier. Encouraged by his clients, Cunningham started writing, first for Women’s Wear Daily and then for the Chicago Tribune. He closed his hat shop in 1962. Following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy sent Cunningham a red Balenciaga suit she had bought at Chez Ninon. He dyed it black and she wore it to the funeral.
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