“I am so honored to be here and I would really like all the women in the room to get up, because I feel that I would not have come here without you” these the first words of the aceptance speech of Autumn Cheyenne Durald Arkapaw, the first woman to win an Oscar for the category Best Photography thanks to her work in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.
A speech that in some respects recalls that of Frances McDormand, who in 2018, after withdrawing his Oscar as Best Protagonist Actress for Three Manifests in Ebbing, Missouri, invited all women appointed to stand up and men said: “We have all stories to tell and projects that need funding. Don’t talk to us tonight at the party, call us tomorrow morning to talk about it in the office.” And perhaps, there is a red thread linking McDormand’s words to this historic victory for a woman of Filipino origins and creoles.
Ryan Coogler entrusted himself to Autumn Durald Arkapow for the second time after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with him the PDO learned to master the shooting in IMAX 65mm, also earning the primacy of being the first director of photography to work with large cameras. “Ryan has always offered me opportunities that not only shaped my career, but also inspired others, especially those who resemble me or have not yet had such opportunities,” he said during an interview.
Born and raised in San Francisco in 1979, Durald studied art history at Loyola Marymount University and in 2009 graduated in photography in independent productions. After collaborating for several short films, he comes to a wider audience with Palo Alto of Gia Coppola, creating a sort of partnership confirmed for None of special and The Last Showgirl. For the director Spike Jonze, instead, he signs the photograph of the documentary The story of the Beastie Boys and the special TV stand up comedian Aziz Ansari. He has also worked for pop stars music videos such as Janelle Monáe, Haim, Big Sean and Power Is Power by SZA, The Weeknd and Travis Scott.
With his work in I peccatori, the director translated the continuum of black music into images and movements. “A moment in particular I was impressed with absolute clarity: the sequence on the farm we shot with the Choctaw, the hunters of native American vampires,” says Autumn Arkapow, who, as in a perfect ink, takes its name from Cheyenne Autumn, a western by John Ford. “Ryan gave me the opportunity to shoot that scene in the spirit of the kind to which he gave me the name.”.
With this Oscar it officially certifies a historical passage in a category of the male genre “many girls who look like me will sleep very quiet tonight. Even just being on this stage to receive this award for a film like that will change the lives of so many girls, because they will feel inspired when they weren’t before,” he added in his thanks.
L’articolo Autumn Arkapaw and his historic Oscar victory proviene da SentieriSelvaggi.
