Documentarian, cinematographer, director: Haskell Wexler’s spent 50 years framing the truth. It’s ironic, then, that Wexler has distanced himself from son Mark’s this-is-my-dad documentary, apparently pissed off by the portrait on show. He should be proud. In pointing the lens back on his octogenarian father, Wexler Jr has lit every face – every wrinkle – of a complex man: driven professional, vigilant activist, forlorn divorcee, phlegmatic father, big-hearted friend, cantankerous bastard...
A worthy companion to Nathaniel Kahn’s similarly themed My Architect, Tell... has added appeal for cinephiles. Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda are among the talking heads, while footage of Wexler’s work (In The Heat Of The Night, Coming Home) confirms the man’s genius – irascible old sod or not.
