Celia Maysles, daughter of David Maysles (who, with his brother Albert, directed such landmark documentaries as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens), has directed a film about her attempts to get to know her late father called Wild Blue Yonder. When the film had its world premiere at IDFA last fall, Albert Maysles (who is seen in the film denying Celia access to her father’s archives, on the grounds that her film might conflict with his own autobiographical doc) told indieWIRE that he had so far not been allowed to see his niece’s movie. But he apparently caught up with it at some point, because at an event celebrating his own The Gates last night, Albert offered The Reeler a review:
Terrible…Unnecessarily, I come off badly. I wanted to cooperate with her, but I was — and am — making my own autobiographical film at the same time. I couldn’t just let her pick whatever she wanted. I wanted the two of us to cooperate in that process. She took that as an offense. And as you see in the film, I come off as the bad guy.
Maysles concedes that Yonder is actually “fairly well-made,” but cites what he claims are numerous inaccuracies, and ultimately writes off the whole endeavor as “unnecessary.” Sour grapes or solid critique? We’ll find out when Wild Blue Yonder has its US premiere at the SXSW Film Festival next month.
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