LITTLE WHITE LIES MAGAZINE (ISSUE 89)
Museum Member Price: $16.20
LWLies 89: The First Cow issue – On sale now!
In celebration of Kelly Reichardt, one of America’s greatest working filmmakers, and her extraordinary new film.
People often say they “grew up” with an artist’s work. Which can mean that this work became meaningful at a critical time in life, or that the work became a trusted companion, arriving at handy intervals across a broader timescale. It’s coming up to 15 years since I first encountered the work of American director Kelly Reichardt. It was a London Film Festival screening of 2006’s Old Joy. I watched it at the keen, slightly hectoring behest of an industry colleague and, from that moment, have never looked back.
It’s massively satisfying to encounter each new work by this director of films which are perhaps a tad too subtle and delicate to puncture the mainstream (and they are clearly not made with that function in mind). Yet under these placid surfaces lay great riches for those willing to plunge for them. Her latest, First Cow, is no different, a miniature epic which chronicles a fast male friendship, a burgeoning baking empire on the American frontier, and then takes a bittersweet turn into more metaphysical climes.
In this issue, we celebrate the world of Kelly Reichardt by embracing her love of natural landscapes on screen, and also talking to some of her longtime collaborators, including author Jon Raymond and alt rock icon, Will Oldham. And as a special little side-project, we’ve included an alternative history of the New Hollywood cinema of the late ’60s and ’70s as told through a variety of wondrous baked goods created by some of our most gifted collaborators.
On the cover
The embroidered cover is by Steph Watts, inspired by the hand-wrought quality of Reichardt’s films, but also intended as a gorgeous piece of craft that might exist within the world of First Cow itself. From conception to completion, the piece took just under a month to create, and we sincerely hope that Steph was wearing a thimble to prevent any stitching-based injury.
Illustrators featured in this issue: Stéphanie Sergeant, Hazel Mason, Ruthie Gibbs, Elena Mompó, and Robin Goodwin.
