Les Blank Films Available in a Box Set

Berkeley filmmaker Les Blank is known for charming short documentaries on topics as diverse as garlic, women with gaps between their teeth, and film director Werner Herzog. Following Blank’s death in 2013, fourteen of his films have been digitally re-mastered and are being released in a box set called Always For Pleasure, the title of his film about New Orleans’ party culture. This collector’s set, put out by Criterion, offers a survey of Blank’s huge output of films about American subcultures, including Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers, In Heaven There Is No Beer? and the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins. Blank’s company Flower Films has been replaced by the nonprofit Les Blank Films, set up to preserve, promote, and distribute his work. Recently, Gina Leibrecht completed one of Blank’s last films that she edited and co-directed, How To Smell A Rose, which premiered this year at the Telluride Film Festival in the US and at the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam). For info and to purchase the box set: www.lesblank.com