Betty Tells Her Story

U.S. filmmaker Liane Brandon s 1972 film, Betty Tells Her Story, consists of two 10-minute interviews, played in sequence. Brandon had met the film s subject when both were consulting for the Massachusetts Department of Education, and was drawn to a story Betty told about buying a dress and then losing it before she had a chance to wear it. "I borrowed Ricky Leacock s camera, and John Terry, who worked with Ricky at M.I.T., volunteered to do sound," Brandon says. At Betty s house, the crew loaded the first of three 10-minute black-and-white film magazines, and Brandon asked Betty simply to tell her story. "The first version that you see in the film is the first take that we did. I never told her how long a magazine was, but somehow she ended the story just before we ran out of film." It was basically the story as Betty had first told it to Brandon a witty anecdote about a dress she d found that was just perfect—and how she never got to wear it. 

Betly, from Betty Tells Her Story. Photo courtesy of Liane Brandon. 

Betty Tells Her Story Produced, directed, and edited by Liane Brandon. 

This film is distributed by New Day Films, wvw.newday.com/films/ Betty Tells Her Story.html. 

In the final film, the first and third takes are run consecutively, with some black leader in between that reads. Later that day, the filmmaker asked Betty to tell her story again. The contrast between the two takes is what gives this film its power. 

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