[Leica] Ted's DVD has arrived

[abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)]

Today, despite being handled by both the US and Canadian postal
systems, Ted's DVD arrived. Jan and I eagerly screened it tonight.

It's a wonderful production. I've not yet met Ted in person, only
shared this forum with him. But the sense of who is he is just fills
the documentary. There are many images I had not equated with being
Ted's, so seeing something familiar and finding out it was his made
for a wonderful discovery.

I wasn't aware of his work with the Chernobyl children - that sequence
brought tears to my eyes, and I think to Ted's too. The medical
images, and Ted at work in the OR, was special. My wife gave me two of
his medical books for Christmas -- this makes them that much more
special.

I particularly enjoyed the sequences with Ted's family and, as I think
about it, holding that first camera his wife gave him, that was quite
special too.

This is good documentary film making. If I were to ask for something
it would be that the DVD had been made anamorphic so my player would
have expanded it to full-screen on my HDTV instead of showing it
letter-boxed in 4:3 format. That was a production decision and I'm
sure $$$ were an issue there. I'd have liked some pan-scan across the
images too. In some of them I noticed what appeared to be JPEG
artifacts as if they were captured into video from low-resolution
scans.

These are quibbles. The essence is of the humanity and the art and
craft of Ted Grant.

Your team did good, Ted. Thank you! And thank you for your work. I'm
looking forward to sharing a single malt with you!

Adam Bridge