BOB DYLAN AS FILMMAKER book launch + film premiere

A recap of our special DarkRoom screening. Plus: an exclusive interview with author Michael Glover Smith and filmmaker Ben Creech

Last Saturday, we hosted an evening dedicated to Bob Dylan on film, celebrating both the release of Michael Glover Smith’s new book, Bob Dylan as Filmmaker, and the world premiere of Ben Creech’s short film adaptation No Time To Think: Bob Dylan as Filmmaker.

Michael and Ben traveled from Chicago for the New York premiere at Gallery 198 in Brooklyn. A packed audience of Dylan devotees gave them a warm welcome. Thanks to all who attended, took part in the Q&A, and went home with a book or print!

Michael Glover Smith reading from Bob Dylan as Filmmaker. Photo by Elizabeth Yoo.

Michael has seen Bob Dylan in concert more than 100 times and spent decades immersed in his work. His new book, published by McNidder & Grace, offers a deeply researched and fascinating exploration of Dylan’s relationship with cinema. You can purchase a copy here.

Ben Creech’s film essay adaptation of Michael’s book.

Ben’s accompanying video essay functions as a visual companion piece. Built from over 100 film references and shaped through ongoing conversations with Michael (who narrates), it unfolds as a montage that moves through Dylan’s cinematic world. Ben wrote in his Instagram recap of the evening: “Do not hesitate to request a link to view this film!”

For anyone interested in Elizabeth Yoo’s marvelous cover artwork, she currently has a limited number of prints available through her online shop: here (front cover) and here (back cover).

Elizabeth Yoo and Michael Glover Smith

DarkRoom Screening & Salon photos by Sam Lim

Host Brian Ratigan, filmmaker Ben Creech and author Michael Glover Smith.

Attendees line up for Michael’s book signing.

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Interview with Michael Glover Smith and Ben Creech

After the screening, we followed up with Michael and Ben to continue the conversation from our Q&A. Below are their responses, beginning with questions for Michael, followed by Ben, and ending with a few questions for both of them.

Bob Dylan’s music and writing has been written about from almost every angle. What made you want to approach him through the lens of filmmaking?

MGS: There are many, many books about Bob Dylan out there, and I never thought the world would need another one! But, over the years, as I watched and rewatched Dylan’s film work, I noticed there seems to be a genuine void in the scholarship about this work. People love to write about D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, in which Dylan was the subject, or Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in which Dylan acted. But the films about which he can be said to be the primary author (i.e., Eat the Document, Renaldo and Clara and Masked and Anonymous) tend to get short shrift. This is primarily because the first two are not officially available to watch, and the third was dismissed as a “vanity project” as soon as it premiered. This is a shame because I think you can learn a lot about Dylan by watching these movies, and I think they’re an important part of his legacy. I honestly felt like no one else was going to write this book if I didn’t do it.

Was there a particular film that first made you realize Dylan’s cinematic instincts deserved deeper study?

MGS: I think watching Renaldo and Clara for the first time was what really blew me away. The structure of it is very intricate: He’s cutting back and forth between three different modes of filmmaking. It’s a concert film, it’s a behind-the-scenes documentary and it’s also a fictional narrative film. Sometimes Bob Dylan is playing himself, and other times he’s playing a character named “Renaldo,” and sometimes it’s hard to know which is which. But this sort of Cubist approach to characterization can also be found in his songs! “Tangled Up in Blue,” one of his most beloved songs, melds first and third-person narrators, and also dissolves the past and present. I think Renaldo and Clara is like “Tangled Up in Blue” in song form, and I consider it one of Dylan’s major works.

You visited the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa to research the book. What were some of the most illuminating things you uncovered in the archives?

MGS: The thing that impressed me most was seeing Dylan’s editing notes for Eat the Document. They go on for literally hundreds of pages. He tried to edit that movie many different ways, and he tried them all out on paper before he started cutting the film. That was fun to look through and it gave me great insight. I was also surprised that he