Movies Starring Photographers (Make the Popcorn)

As if it were a film blog, today I am going to recommend a list of films. But no, we have not changed the third, not at all. Our passion is still photography, although it is closely related to the seventh art, by the way. What happens is that they have in common that they are films by photographers. Its protagonists or main actors are someone with whom you can identify, because you share a passion, photography.

That’s why I wanted to talk to you about them, so when you want to watch a movie on the sofa with your bowl of popcorn in front of you or with a succulent ice cream (why not…), and you don’t know which one to choose, remember this list of movies of photographers to have a good time uniting two great hobbies. Well, if we count the sofing or popcorn would be three hobbies 😉 ).

1. Pecker
2. City of God
3. Smoke
4. The bridges of Madison
5. To be born again
6. high-art
7. portrait of an obsession
8. a thousand times goodnight
9. the proof
10. Harrison’s Flowers
11. The Mauthausen Photographer
12. boyhood
13. The labyrinth of the possible

Let’s see them one by one.

1. Pecker (1998)

It is a comedy about Pecker, an 18-year-old who works selling fast food and whose greatest hobby is taking photographs (albeit with a very personal style. An art dealer from New York notices his work and convinces him to exhibit in his gallery. An exhibition that will launch him to fame, but that will create some problems with his family and friends. I leave you with the trailer that is in English but it will help you to get an idea:

2. City of God (2002)

We go from comedy to the most absolute drama with this Brazilian film based on real events that describes the world of organized crime in City of God, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. It takes place between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the eighties, where drug trafficking and violence imposed their law in the favelas.

The protagonist is Buscapé, who in the late sixties is an 11-year-old boy, shy and sensitive, who observes the tough kids in his neighborhood, their robberies, their fights, their daily confrontations with the police. He is very clear that if he survives, he wants to be a photographer.

Meanwhile, Dadinho, a boy his age who moves to the neighborhood, dreams of being the most dangerous criminal in Rio de Janeiro and begins his apprenticeship by running errands for local criminals. He admires Cabeleira and his gang, who dedicate themselves to robbing gas trucks. One day Cabeleira gives Dadinho the opportunity to commit his first murder.

Not suitable for highly sensitive people.

3. Smoke (1995)

With a script by one of my favorite writers, Paul Auster, I present to you Smoke, a film where the protagonist is Auggie Wren, the owner of a tobacco shop, who takes a photograph in the same place and with the same frame every day.

In this film, several stories of different characters intersect where human relationships have as much prominence as photography itself.

I think this scene is a very good summary of the film and its essence:

4. The Bridges of Madison

For the most romantic people, this intense love story between a National Geographic photographer and a housewife who lives on a farm with her husband and two children. This scene will help you get an idea of ​​the emotions it will make you feel.

5. Reborn (2012)

Through flashbacks, this melodrama oscillates between the present and the past, narrating the tempestuous love relationship between an American photographer and a young traveler, passing through Sarajevo, and during the terrible Balkan War that ravaged the heart of the former Yugoslavia.

If you are crying, prepare the tissues.

6. High Art (1998)

The protagonist of this film is a photographer who has lost her prestige due to her drug addiction. She meets a young photographer who works for an important magazine and together they will start a job that will make them reach very high, professionally and personally.

7. Portrait of an Obsession (Fur) (2006)

In this case, although it seems like a biography of the great Diane Arbus, it is an imaginary story about her life. Opinions there are of all types, although to give an opinion better see it, right?

8. A Thousand Times Goodnight (2014)

In this film we discover Rebecca, one of the best war photographers in the world. Returning to her home after being seriously injured in Kabul, she faces a tremendous emotional storm when her husband refuses to put up with the dangerous life he leads her.

Both he and his two daughters need Rebecca and give her an ultimatum: her job or her family…

9. The Proof (1991)

Martin is a blind photographer who, despite his arrogant and self-sufficient character, needs the care of Celia, an attractive woman who has loved him for a long time and with whom he has a sadistic relationship. The arrival of Andy, a lonely dishwasher, in Martin’s life, causes these characters to become involved in a love triangle.