Regarding Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag is one of those names that always seemed to come up in conversations about the so-called "intellectual elite" along with the "effete snobs", "chattering classes", etc. In the cultural divide between us vs. them, she was always in the "them" category. My impression is that in any open society that upholds free thought, it is important to put out new and different points of view in the marketplace of ideas. We have nothing to fear from the free expression of thoughts and ideas. In this documentary, we find out about the life of Susan Sontag, born Suan Rosenblatt. We meet her sister, and her son and daughter in law and her partners, including photographer Annie Leibovitz. Viewers see photos of her parents who lived in China until she was five while Susan and her sister remained in the United States. After the death of her father, her mother returned home and married a Sontag, the name that remained hers. She spent her adulthood mainly in Paris and New York. She fought three battles against cancer and won the first two, finally succumbing in 2004 at age 71. She wrote about her experience with cancer and tried everything in her power to fight it. In the 1960's, Sontag was a critic of the Vietnam War and a leader of the women's movement. In a discussion with Noman Mailer, Susan Sontag asked why it was necessary to use gender labels like "women writers" or "women doctors"...why aren't they simply called doctors or writers as men are. Thankfully, those labels are no longer used. I thought her ideas about photography were compelling, particularly her point that once a person passes, the photograph becomes what we remember and how we recall them. In the 1960's shock photographs became more commonplace, especially in magazines such as Life. Sontag felt that the more shock photos people see, the less impact they had. I found Susan Sontag to be an excellent subject and very well spoken. She seemed very comfortable and courteous with interviewers and despite her reputation for complex ideas, she expressed herself with great clarity as she responded to questions. This is a documentary well worth viewing.

I saw this film at the SF Gay Film Festival 2014.

This documentary has inspired me to read more of Susan Sontag's writings. I had read a couple of her early works years ago and had not realized how much more she wrote.

The film does a beautiful job of unfolding her life story and interweaving the subjects of her writings and work as an activist. It was an intriguing tale with gorgeous photographs and lots of great interviews with family members, friends, and lovers. By the end of the film, I felt like I had been given a taste of Susan which lingered on the tongue and wanted more.

She seemed to be one of those intensely private yet public characters who we think we know but actually don't know at all. This was a fascinating portrait of an extremely intelligent woman who lived life on her own terms. She demonstrated what it means to be nonconformist and live with the consequences of actions disapproved by others.

The director is to be commended for achieving the monumental task of finding critical clips of historical archival footage, getting access to and interviews with the important people in her life, and putting the pieces together in a nonjudgmental way that respects the varying perspectives of all the people involved.