Duane Michals signs "DUANELAND” posters after the Thursday night (11/18) premiere of the film about his life and work.

Cheers, Standing ‘O’ Greet McKeesport Native Duane Michals, Film About His Life and Career

After the first showing of “DUANELAND” Thursday night (11/18/04) at Three Rivers Film Festival, the audience cheered the co-directors and gave a standing ovation to internationally acclaimed photographer Duane Michals, whose life and achievements are the subject of the documentary.

Consortium Associate Executive Director Stephen Seliy and his colleague Joe Seamans worked for nearly two years to bring “DUANELAND” to life. The 7 p.m. Thursday screening at Regent Square Theater was followed by a reception with Michals at the Concept Art Gallery.

The Consortium’s extended association with Michals began with his induction into the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame in 1988 by the McKeesport High School Alumni & Friends Association, a long-running Consortium initiative founded and still led by Consortium Executive Director Linda L. Croushore. Michals is a 1949 McKeesport graduate.

The “DUANELAND” DVD is available for sale, as are the posters Michals is signing in the photo above. Posters are $25 signed (a limited number are available) and $20 unsigned.
Click here to go to the DVD and poster order form.

The Making of DUANELAND

Duane Michals began leaving McKeesport when he was a young boy.

He ventured into the “big city” of Pittsburgh for Saturday morning art classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art. It was his favorite day of the week. It also was the first steps he would take toward a career that has brought him international acclaim for his work in photography.

Long a resident of New York City, Michals has maintained his McKeesport and Pittsburgh ties.

His archives have been promised to the Carnegie Museum of Art , and he returns here frequently to jury exhibitions at the museum, to attend the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame inductions for his high school classmates (he has some loyal Class of 1949 “groupies”), and to speak to students at McKeesport Area High School.

After his mother died, he revisited his now-abandoned family home in McKeesport and then wrote “The House I Once Called Home: A Photographic Memoir with Verse.”

Michals’ connection to the Consortium began with his own induction to the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame in 1989, and he has been involved with the McKeesport High alumni association and the Consortium on and off over the years. More recently, a decision to record oral histories of noted local figures brought Michals back into the Consortium’s purview. The idea for the “DUANELAND” documentary grew out of the initial oral history photo shoots, which Stephen Seliy, Consortium associate executive director, soon realized had the potential to tell a much bigger story.

“We had the incredible opportunity to see McKeesport through Duane’s eyes, ask him some very personal questions, and to hear this remarkable and talented human being talk about his multi-faceted career in the art world,” Seliy said.

Michals can be blunt (and raunchy). “DUANELAND” doesn’t pull any punches, but Mary Thomas, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette art critic, gave it three stars (out of a possible four) and called it a “labor of love and important contribution to understanding a figure pivotal to the history of photography.”

DUANELAND In Review

DUANELAND (three stars). McKeeport’s Duane Michals is one of the most important living artists in contemporary photography. At 72, the wily artist shows no signs of slowing down, yet somehow local producers/directors Stephen Seliy (The Consortium for Public Education) and Joseph Seamans (WQED-TV) traipsed after him over the past two years to make this inspiring documentary. The film cleverly integrates interviews, footage of Michals working, his still photos and signature quirky handwriting to create a portrait of the artist -- his biography, philosophies and inspirations -- that is illuminating, deeply personal and visually compelling. In one of the film’s most poignant threads, Michals visits his alma mater, 55 years after graduating, to speak to students, demonstrating his unapologetic rebelliousness by broaching subjects such as his homosexuality and disbelief of Christianity, to the simultaneous discomfort of attending teachers and glee of his young audience. If you’re interested in art, artists, literature, humorous old men, documentary films, philosophy or just the city of Pittsburgh, you must take a trip to DUANELAND! Co-directors Seliy and Seamans, as well as Michals, will attend the 7 p.m. closing-event screening ($10). 7 and 9:15 p.m. Thu., Nov. 18. Regent Square --Heather Mull, Pittsburgh City Paper

DUANELAND (three stars). At the beginning of "DUANELAND," a documentary about the internationally acclaimed photographer Duane Michals, the artist makes a statement that sums up the film and his life: "Photography's given me everything." But the other half of the story is that he's given back a lot in return.

The New York resident and McKeesport native, whose first museum exhibition was at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and whose commercial accounts have included Life, Vogue and Esquire magazines, maintains Pittsburgh ties. His archives have been promised to Carnegie Museum of Art, and he returns frequently for such things as exhibition jurying or speaking to students at his alma mater, McKeesport High School.

Local directors Steve Seliy and Joe Seamans used the latter visit as a frame for mini-chapters like "Russia," where Michals discovered his propensity for photography with a borrowed camera, "The Art World," wherein some of his formal accomplishments are discussed, and "Magritte" and "Warhol," both of whom he knew and photographed.

The school setting works to show the candid Michals, whose raunchy humor is salted with fatherly care and insight. But at the same time it, and the occasionally overloud soundtrack, seems to try too hard to jazz a subject who can hold his own without props. Local audiences will find most moving Michals' visit to his now deserted childhood home, the subject of his recently published book "The House I Once Called Home."

"DUANELAND" isn't the definitive film on Michals, but it's a labor of love and an important contribution to understanding a figure pivotal to the history of photography.

The 7 p.m. Thursday screening at Regent Square Theater includes a reception with Michals ($10); also shown at 9:15 p.m. ($7).

--Mary Thomas, Post-Gazette art critic (11/12/04)

'Duaneland' is interesting snapshot of artist's life
(three stars)

The 64-minute documentary "Duaneland" provides a just-long-enough look at the life, work and irascible personality of photographer Duane Michals.

Michals, originally from McKeesport, is the onscreen narrator of the film, leading the audience chronologically through his life. Interspersed are clips of him addressing a class of high schoolers -- a special event the students seemed to enjoy but probably gave teachers headaches. His off-color language and blunt declaration of his homosexuality inspired giggles and questions from the students: "Are you seriously gay?" One boy asks. "No, I'm an amateur," Michals says.

The film is as visually interesting as Michals work, and there are frequent examples of the work itself -- sequential works that initially won him only scorn in New York -- as well as portraits of artists such as Andy Warhol and Rene Magritte, and celebrities such as Richard Gere and Glenn Close. There are a few scenes that show him in the midst of his work: a photo session with Joel Grey posing as a "priest," and a pair of teenage boys splashing out of a river.

Michals shows real affection for McKeesport and Pittsburgh throughout the film. And most stirring are the moments when he returns to his abandoned boyhood home, explaining photographic works he created by juxtaposing old family photos against the new photos of those same rooms, deep in decay.
-- Jolie Williamson, Tribune-Review (11/18/04)