Search - Naked States on DVD

A captivating experience

danANC | anchorage, ak | 01/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While good reviewing technique seems to suggest that ones should write a summary of the item being reviewed, it seems unlikely that you'd be here if you didn't know what Naked States is about, so, just this quick summary: Spencer Tunick road-trips through the contiguous 48 states photographing nudes in public, and this documentary follows him, his girlfriend, and occasional crew through the process. The result is, indeed, captivating. Tunick manages to take public nudity, an almost completely taboo subject, and make it accessible to a wide audience. This is no peep show for sexual gratification: it would be a waste of money and time, and devalue one of the most worthwhile aspects of the documentary and Tunick's work: the human body is beautiful, and fascinating, and both works manage to make the body something to be considered, and viewed as art, rather than something to be ashamed of, and run from. That said, if you or your viewing partners are easily embarassed by nudity, proceed with caution, as nearly every scene contains it. One interesting difficulty encountered in reviewing a 'docudrama' such as this is whether to focus on the documentary, or the underlying subject matter. I'm mostly writing about Spencer Tunick's work, i.e., the subject matter, but it's worth noting that the documentary quality is high, maintains the viewer's attention, and doesn't rely too heavily on the 'shocking' nature of the subject matter to surprise, but rather presents it in an even-handed way, and allows the viewer to go along for the ride. Other, minor, notes/gripes: the brief interviews with Tunick's girlfriend, who seems to comfort some (many?) of the females who are solicited to have their pictures taken nude, were too brief. She seems to occupy a tense space in this venture: Spencer as occasionally ego-driven, occasionally humble artist; she as foil, legitimacy, grounding device. Perhaps too much time was spent on a few major events/places (it seems that almost half the movie was spent in three places: the Phish concert, the nudist colony, and Burning Man.) Burning Man provided an interesting visual contrast, though: the documentary camera focused several times on the huge sign that reads "NO SPECTATORS", while we, as documentary viewers, are exactly that. It also provided an interesting glimpse into this rarely-reported festival in the Nevada desert, though this wasn't apprently a major purpose. As a photographer, I found the color, real-life models and their beautiful surroundings, and the edited-in, black-and-white final photographs of them to be a fascinating contrast. (Which goes to the eternal struggle of the photographer: how to make something stay real and vibrant in still-motion.) The additional, and much more raw, documentary included as a DVD extra was also interesting, and worthwhile viewing. It included nealry a start-to-finish photo shoot in Central Park's Strawberry Fields, and lots of gushy comments about how the model-particiapnts think John Lennon would've approved of Tunick's work. Overall: a VERY worthwhile view, which will make you think, and laugh, and give you plenty of conversation fodder. (I checked it out from the library, but I wouldn't have been disappointed had I paid for it.)"