BIFF: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Everyone's favourite puppet gets the doco treatment.
On Day 7 of BIFF, I was treated to one of the most inspiring, hopeful documentaries you'll see on screens anywhere this year, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, from directors Constance Marks and Philip Shane. For anyone who's ever yearned to perform, this documentary following the rise of puppeteering superstar Kevin Clash, voice of Elmo and Sesame Street kingpin, will delight, amuse, and give you that warm, fuzzy feeling (no felt needed).
From his early days growing up in a poor area of Baltimore, staring in awe at the TV and wondering how his favourite shows and puppets were made (Captain Kangaroo and Sesame Street among them), Clash showed a prodigious skill in both hand-crafting puppets and feverishly learning the techniques that would make him one of the best living puppeteers of today.
Being Elmo features some wonderful interviews with greats Frank Oz, Joan Ganz Cooney, as well as a host of Muppet Show and Sesame Street legends and celebrity fans: rounding off the package with exclusive archive footage of the Jim Henson workshop and Sesame Street set. If this documentary has achieved anything of equal greatness to Kevin Clash's talent, it is showing how much of his heart and positive energy he puts into Elmo, who is essentially adored worldwide because of one man's combination of tenacity, genius, and pure joy for living.
To check out the full program or for further details about the festival running 3 -13 November, please head here.
To check out the full program or for further details about the festival running 3 -13 November, please head here.<-->
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