A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams And The Warhol Factory Review

Ah, Hot Docs is over. So sad to say goodbye to another year. I'll talk more about my general reactions to this year's festival in a near future post but for now I have to get back to business. Six more films to review and I'm woefully behind!

A Walk Into The Sea: Danny Williams And The Warhol Factory
(2007, directed by Esther B Robinson)

Danny Williams is virtually unknown today, even among those who are familiar with Andy Warhol and his factory of artists and influential friends. A Walk Into the Sea's director, Esther B Robinson, is Williams' niece. At the heart of the film is a search by Robinson to uncover her uncle's films and piece together a narrative about who Williams was and what happened before he mysteriously disappeared in 1966. Through sheer tenacity, Robinson scores interviews with key Factory members like Brigid Berlin and Billy Name. The interviews are mostly interesting as everyone has a different version of events; sometimes the subjects disagree with each other because they never paid much attention to Williams quietly toiling in the film suites or shooting movies around the factory. Sometimes they were too busy trying to win favour with Warhol to notice the nice man who didn't demand attention. Sometimes the subjects cannot remember simply because they were doing too many drugs. In any case it can be a treat to watch them reminisce. Recollections from artists, family members and Warhol historians form the basis for the detective story. Although we meet many eccentric and creative characters along the way, the larger question of Danny Williams remains unsolved.

Danny Williams and the Bolex Camera he Borrowed from Andy Warhol
Any real information about Williams' personality and work arises from his recently discovered short experimental films. The black and white films (shot and edited in Warhol's Bolex camera) reveal all the main players of the Warhol factory through strobe lighting effects, flash editing, and high contrast, haunting images of smiles and grimaces. The short films of Danny Williams are really the reason to watch this documentary, and Robinson wisely includes one in its entirety. Williams was undoubtedly a master of lighting effects (he also did the stage lighting for Velvet Underground concerts), and his position as a Factory outsider and perhaps spurned lover of Andy Warhol permeates his silent images. Robinson, perhaps influenced by her uncle, also tries her hand at experimental film making but her style becomes demanding and ineffective at times. It's a very fine line between experimental visuals that challenge the viewer to think and react, and turning the "atmosphere" dial to eleven. Unfortunately, the film becomes laboured and repetitive as it follows the Danny Williams story to a vague conclusion. This film is recommended for those interested in experimental film making, photography or Andy Warhol. For anyone else, the long journey may not be worth the effort. 3.5 out of 5.