Harvard Student Shows New Films About Tattoos and Bob Dylan

Boston filmmaker Randy Bell unveiled two documentaries Friday in the third and final portion of the Boston University film festival sponsored by BU's American and New England Studies Program.

Bell, a 2000 Harvard University film graduate, first presented "Look Back, Don't Look Back" to a packed Stone Auditorium filled with fans and interested viewers.

A collaboration with friend Justin Rice detailing their self-described "obsession" with folk singer Bob Dylan, the film documents the struggle of the two men to interview Dylan. "Look Back, Don't Look Back" focused on Rice and Bell's frustration as they contact both the legend's publicist and son in a failed effort to meet Bob Dylan at his 1999 concert in Amherst.

The film intersperses footage of Dylan with scenes of Bell and his friends visiting the places in New York City where Dylan first lived and performed. Rice also mimics Dylan in reenacted scenes paying homage to "Don't Look Back," the D.A. Pennemaker documentary of Dylan's 1965 English tour.

"We got as close to Bob Dylan as we could," Bell said in a question-and-answer session after the film. "At one point he was someone you could talk to. He wasn't insulated by this machine. Pennemaker had incredible access to Bob Dylan that's not possible today."

"Look Back, Don't Look Back" was voted Best of Festival in the 2000 New England Film Festival.

Bell's second documentary, "Modest Scarring," was his senior thesis. The film followed Bell as he debated the merits and drawbacks of getting his own tattoo. Bell visited a tattoo parlor, a laser-removal clinic and a tattoo festival along the journey.

Bell even interviewed his family and friends. "Nice people do not have tattoos," Bell's father said to the camera. "It's against God's law."

"Modest Scarring" ended with Bell's decision to get a tattoo on his upper arm, and Bell brought his camera into the parlor with him. Even when coaxed by several viewers after the film, Bell refused to show his tattoo to the audience.

"[My tattoo] has absolutely no significance," he said. "It means absolutely nothing. I didn't want to end the movie with any sort of iconographic power, but if I didn't get the tattoo, the movie would have sucked."

The evening ended with 20 minutes of scenes from Bell's next film, an unfinished documentary of life in a Nairobi, Kenya, orphanage. Bell and his friend Pacho Velez spent six weeks in the slums of Nairobi filming 60 hours of footage.

Bell said they plan to make the documentary longer than his previous films. "The scenes are still rough, but it will be feature-film length," he said. "About 90 minutes."

Audience reaction to Bell's work was positive. "The African film was incredible," said Ethan Goldwater, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman. "I came because I'm interested in American Studies and Bob Dylan, but the last stuff was something new. It was really raw."

Liz Moorehead, also a CAS freshman, agreed. "I hope he brings the final documentary back when it's finished. It'll definitely be something I want to see."