Abel Ferrara: Not Guilty

For the French cinephile series Cinéma de notre temps, Rafi Pitts made an intimate portrait of the American film maker Abel Ferrara. For five years, Pitts was able to follow the inspired director of Driller Killer, The Bad Lieutenant and New Rose Hotel from close by. The result is an eccentric road-movie, with the restless Ferrara as a charming, seedy guide leading us through nocturnal New York. Pitts’ introverted approach offers all the space Ferrara needs and he has no trouble filling this space with his larger-than-life personality. We see him quarrel with taxi drivers, start talking frankly to strange women in the street and tell his version of the truth to anyone who wants to hear. But his isolation becomes apparent in an America to which Ferrara does not want to conform. Pitts remains indirect on all levels. We never see an interview on the screen, no fragments from Ferrara’s films are shown directly. Yet the films are present everywhere, and that is largely thanks to the melancholy mood in Abel Ferrara: Not Guilty. Illustrated with unusual fragments -sometimes only the soundtrack -the film immerses us in memories, allusions and deconstructions of the New York film maker.