Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon

“A portrait, not a documentary.” In the attempt to make a film about Douglas Gordon, questions and problems keep piling up: Director Finlay Pretsell and protagonist Gordon get in each other’s way, wrestling playfully, subtly, and with mischievous glee for interpretive authority, all the while bending, denting, and shattering the confines of the classic biopic. Gordon cheerfully bosses his director around, comments on his public image with a wink, and grapples with the camera over how to deal with presence, visibility, and memory. Cinéma vérité in its purest form.