A Poem Is a Naked Person

Les Blank’s portrait of songwriter-session musician Leon Russell was shelved for 40 years before it was finally released. Russell, who also coproduced, wasn’t happy with the result, so questions of rights and differences of opinion meant that only a handful of people ever saw the film. Blank shot the footage between 1972 and 1974 while living on the property of Russell’s Shelter Records recording studio in Oklahoma. Four decades later, the footage functions as a time machine to a lost place and time. In addition to concert and studio recordings of Leon Russell and fellow artists Willie Nelson and George Jones, Blank also put the audience in front of the camera, entirely in the spirit of the times. Even the colorful, occasionally bizarre characters who hang out around Russell’s studio complex get a place in the film. Blank wasn’t much into providing background information, so sometimes it’s anyone’s guess who’s appearing on camera. Following this debut, the director would build an impressive career in documentary filmmaking, but is fascinating, both as a period piece and for what we hardly get to see: footage of Leon Russell, the reason the film was made in the first place.