Show Me the Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall

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Audience Member Really good loved watching it. A true artist with all the insanity that comes with it Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member An hour and a half documentary about a cocked up, self-absorbed, insecure asshole. Pathetic! A complete & utter waste of time. A colossal failure of a movie. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member 'Breathtaking' is this film in one word. Many years ago I was given three Jim Marshall prints of Jimi Hendrix (I'm a huge fan) which I have hanging at home. So I knew Jim Marshall's name as a rock photographer from a long time ago, so I was intrigued to hear and see more about him and his work. His work! I hadn't realised just how much I had seen of it. Just about every memorable picture of the '60's, '70's and '80's seems to be his and shown so beautifully in this film, the sheer quality on the screen is stunning. The film was very much an emotional roller-coaster, the man was irrascible, cantankerous and perversely lovable (ish!), but completely dedicated to his art. This point was very well presented. I came away with a real sense of knowing Jim Marshall and his genius. There was a Q&A after the presentation I went to with the director, Alfred George Bailey and executive producer, Amelia Davis. Incredibly it's the director's first film! Hard to believe as it was so well made, he clearly has a future in film. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member There's never been a photographer like Jim Marshall who so consistently captured the music in images the way he did: the passion, the power, the mystery, the artistry, and always the human being behind the bigger-than-life sound, freezing in a timeless instant what otherwise passes unseen by the naked eye. Show Me the Picture â" an absorbing and well-paced story told with a sensory feast of stunning images, music, scene-setting historic events, cultural landmarks, and eyewitness accounts â" is no "how to" guide for photographers to merely learn the tricks. By showing us Marshall's difficult childhood, his later run-ins with the law, his dangerous relationship with guns and drugs, along with his quirky but genuine kindness, the trust he had with his subjects (earned and ferociously safeguarded), and his principled devotion to "getting the pictures," we see both the darkness and the light that shaped him as a human being. In the end, the film convincingly suggests, Marshall managed to channel the light, together with all that previously uncontrolled dark, into image after compelling image, the whole of which became his formidable body of work. This isn't just a great film about photography, music history, and a complex character. It's a superb film about an artist and the nature of art. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member After seeing Show Me the Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall, I was struck not only by the breadth and scope of Marshall's photography, which ranged much further than the famous photos of rock stars for which I'd known him, but by how fully and intimately director Alfred George Bailey revealed Jim Marshall as a human being. Bailey beautifully explores the surprisingly broad scope of Marshall's work ï¿ 1/2 1/2" the civil rights movement, Appalachian poverty, legendary jazz musicians, and of course, the greatest of rock legends. With an artistic talent of Marshall's magnitude, it would be easy to simply focus on his work and give short shrift to his personal life, particularly given the controversy that shrouded his reputation. However, the real power of this documentary comes from the deep and honest examination of the forces that shaped Jim Marshall's early life, the demons that drove him to despair and self-destruction, and the compassion and empathy that allowed him to connect so profoundly with his subjects. As the film progressed, I gained a deeper understanding of Jim Marshall as a whole and complex person, which in turn illuminated his work more intensely than I'd ever experienced it before. To me, the most powerful of Marshall's photos in the film isn't an image of a legendary musician, or even of the stark hardship of the civil rights movement, but of a young family sitting together. To see the depth of feeling between these four people, the innocent playfulness of the children, the love and calm of the parents, all perfectly captured in a photograph, is truly to grasp the magic of Jim Marshall's talent. And to see how skillfully this exposition occurs in the course of the film is to realize how beautifully composed and executed this film is. Alfred George Bailey has made a film that does justice to the brilliant artist that Jim Marshall is, because it captures him with the same compassion and depth of feeling that he showed his legendary subjects. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member A touching reflection of an amazing man. This film not only displays his talent but the long lasting friendships he had with so many people and not just big names. Anyone in photography should take note on how to get the perfect shot. He caught real emotion and you feel you were in the room when he took the photo. Magic.....pure magic. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Show Me the Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall

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