His 42 films mostly depict slices of folk culture, but his best known, ‘Burden of Dreams,’ documents director Werner Herzog’s fanatical making of ‘Fitzcarraldo.’
When Les Blank arrived in the lush, untamed Amazon in 1981 to make a documentary about Werner Herzog’s film, “Fitzcarraldo,” he knew the German’s reputation as a daredevil director. Herzog had chosen the remote jungle locale, plagued by tribal skirmishes and the perils of nature, for authenticity.
On the first day of shooting, seeking a dramatic shot, Herzog sent a 300-ton steamboat careening into a rocky riverbank. Caught unaware, Blank went flying across the boat deck, camera in tow. “I realized … if I could get back alive and sane, I would have an interesting film, no matter what happened,” Blank said last year.
