My good friend and mentor Peter Hutton died yesterday after a mercifully short run in with lung cancer. I like to think that he may have chosen not to go on with the discomfort and indignity that COPD related illness can inflict on a person. My dad lived with some similar symptoms for years and his last weeks were very sad, humiliating, and uncomfortable. Peter was diagnosed mid May with lung cancer and after a few Chemo treatments he quickly declined and passed away within 5 weeks. I think with the choice of the kind of suffering my dad endured or this relatively quick exit, Peter would have chosen the latter. That is not to say that Peter did not have a lot of life still left in him. Sara has remarked many times in the last days how unfair it is that some people live on forever and offer very little and Peter had so much to offer and was taken so quickly. Peter was a deep and unique artist first and foremost. His many films are beautiful, careful documents of time and place in which one can get completely lost. They sometimes feel like what I imagine virtual reality could be at its best. I was lucky enough to be introduced to them projected on the wall of his kitchen after sharing a joint with him and his entourage while he DJ’d from random cassette tapes. After that magical night I was able to see many more of his films in cinemas and museums around the world. Each time I was transported and hypnotized by the images, pace and structure of his work. He would usually preface the screening with some self deprecating comment like “here’s another sleeper from the sailor.” He worried that people would find them boring. I met him after being hired to be his assistant on a narrative film with his friend and my boss Phil Hartman of the Two Boots empire. The funny story about that film is that I sometimes had to strongly encourage him to pan the camera to keep the actors in frame. All of his films are made of static un-moving frames, mostly of landscapes, he was reluctant to have the actors affect his frames. We became friends on that shoot, I became obsessed with his whole zeitgeist, and we stayed in touch for the next 20+ years. He was an incredible teacher, both at Bard where he worked for years and chaired the department for many, and in normal life. He was the very essence of what we now call “chill” and showed me how to be a better artist, friend, and person every time I was with him. I will miss the long cribbage matches we had ( he always won ) and all the amazing anecdotes and advice he bestowed during them. I feel like my father has died again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hutton_(filmmaker)
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