AT TALK/SHOW
Werner Herzog holds court on deranged penguins

The fact that Werner Herzog is often controversial and always candid may not be an "objective truth," but certainly true enough to satisfy Sunday's standing-room only crowd that turned out for TALK/SHOW in The Loft at the Rooftop Village to listen to the legendary filmmaker discuss his craft and his latest film, Encounters at the End of the World. With a filmmaker whose credits are beyond diverse, it is not surprising that the conversation ranged from global warming to deranged penguins to the quest for truth.

With the completion of Encounters, Herzog now holds the distinction of being the first filmmaker to film on all seven continents. Encounters takes place in Antarctica and envelops into a story about the scientists and workers of the McMurdo research station. Antarctica itself, however, serves as the film's most imposing and inspiring character.

Even though Herzog interviews a penguin expert, he wanted to make clear "I swore I would not do a film on fluffy penguins." Additional offbeat characters in the film include guitar-playing researchers who celebrate their discovery of new aquatic life and a forklift driver with a PhD.

Ever the minimalist, Herzog went to Antarctica with only a cinematographer, as he directed and recorded the sound himself. In order to capture a story on such a beautiful, yet remote and otherworldly location, Herzog had to decide how to portray the "truth" of his interview subjects. The discussion included Herzog's perspective on whether it is the filmmaker's responsibility to the subject to capture an objective truth or to stay true to the filmmaker's artistic vision.

Herzog's answer favors film, as he firmly believes there is no absolute truth that can be portrayed in front of the lens -- only the quest for that absolute truth. Regarding objective truth," forget the film profession and become a bookkeeper and even there, it doesn't really exist." confesses Herzog. "Bury cinema-verite" because it's a concept of the '60s. He further admits, "My documentary films are fiction films in disguise."

When asked about why documentaries often receive criticism about re-creations and flipping the order of events, the Herzog gift for candor kicked in. "Because they (the critics) are all conceptually retarded."