Photographer Gregory Crewdson makes pictures that do everything a movie does except move. Focused on the depressed towns of Western Massachusetts, he puts together a meticulously detailed scene, engages a crew of up to 60, arranges dozens of lights, waits for the right moment, snaps the photo, and then subjects it to a rigorous post-production process. When they succeed, the images transcend the lower-class world that is their subject and touch on an otherworldliness reminiscent of David Lynch, Edward Hopper, or Andrei Tarkovsky. Ben Shapiro shot this documentary over 10 years and not only achieves a portrait of the artist but also captures the artistic process itself, following Crewdson from initial inspiration to finished product. "It's a sign," Crewdson says when a garbage picker mysteriously appears on a somber street scene in Lee, Mass, perfecting the shot. Just one more epiphany in a body of work that shimmers with immanent revelation.
