Author Description

“My life is ordinary enough, but it haunts me in uncommon ways,” Thus speaks David Holzman as he sits in his West Side Manhattan apartment surrounded by old movie posters and photographic equipment. Out of a job, reclassified 1-A, at an impasse with his actress girlfriend, David is completely at loose ends. In the desperate hope that a scrupulous catalogue of the people and events in his life will add form to his existence, he decides to make a diary. His diary is visual and aural, for as a film buff he believes the Godardian dictum that “film is truth twenty-four times per second.” Armed with his Eclair camera and his Nagra recorder, David Holzman sets out on his often funny but ultimately agonizing odyssey. “David Holzman’s Diary,” made on a budget of $2,500, is the young producer-director Jim McBride’s first movie. L. M. Kit Carson prepared the screenplay and also played the leading role. The film won awards at Mannheim and Brussels and was screened at the New York and San Francisco Film Festivals. [Illustrated with frames from the film]