There is a thread of its own of Altamont, the movie and especially the scene of the death of Meredith Hunter but I decided to make a thread of its own of its cinematographer.

Eric Saarinen is a grandson of Finnish architect Elial Saarinen (1973- 1950) who immigrated to United States in 1923. Eliel Saarinen is famous for Finnish Romanticism and his works include such things as the Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris 1900, National Museum of Finland (1903) and Helsinki Central Railway Station (1909). But even more famous architect - at least outside Finland - is his son, aka Eric’s father, Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) who is cited to be one of the most important American architects of 20th Century. His works include, among others, Gateway Arch in St. Louis (1947), TWA Flight Center of JFK Airport in New York (1957/62) , the main terminal of Dulles International Airport, near Washington, D.C (1958).

So, cinematographer Eric Saarinen (1942-) is a visual artist of third generation. It is interesting to know that despite capturing the famous killing of Meredith Hunter for GIMME SHELTER, he also happened to be the guy who shoot the killing of Robert Kennedy (the scene everyone has seen)!!! And that, he has said, was a big co-incidence that it was him filming exactly to the right direction when the scene happened – just like in GIMME SHELTER… About filming GIMME SHELTER (the source: [www.boardsmag.com]:

"People were passing out jugs of wine laced with acid," he recalls of the concert. "It was red wine, which I didn't like, so I didn't drink any, but everybody else on the camera crew was seeing things." While the cameraman remembers the era as being free and expressive, of that particular event he muses, "If everything was perfect at Woodstock, Altamount was the upsidedown underbelly of nature."

Eric Saarinen has also filmed some other cool stuff, such as JIMI PLAYS BERKELEY, some Walt Disney wild nature films, and interestingly, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau , one of my favourites from my childhood… Nowadays he is a commercial director basically.

Just let you know...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-09-04 15:46 by Doxa.

"Eric Saarinen has also filmed some cool stuff, such as JIMI PLAYS BERKELEY"

- great concert, worst filming ever.

Now let us visiualize it some stuff made by The Saarinen Clan.

Eliel Saarinen




Eero Saarinen





Eric Saarinen









- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-09-04 16:25 by Doxa.