True to life’s pathways

Fashion photographer and documentary filmmaker Bruce Weber focuses his latest movie on a letter he writes to his youngest golden retriever, True, but its message would be apt in a holiday card: Peace on earth, good will toward men.

Weber adorns “A Letter to True,” which opens today in L.A., with images of the headliner and his canine companions frolicking in the surf or wearing “dogs for peace” signs, home movies of the late British actor Dirk Bogarde (as well as his corgis), combat footage from the Vietnam War and World War II, and shots of a nude model lolling on the floor, along with other varied scenes. The collage is meant to convey themes of brotherhood, camaraderie, pacifism and appreciation of life -- all things Weber believes humans can learn from dogs.

“Animals are wonderful. They get into a scrap and five minutes later they’re kissing each other,” said the photographer, known for his work in the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, Vanity Fair, Vogue and other magazines and books. “We’re constantly reminded -- just look at the news -- how tough life is nowadays Life can change in a matter of minutes.”

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, drove home that message for Weber, 58, a resident of Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, not far from the World Trade Center site.

“It made me think a lot about my life.... It reminded me of my parents and grandparents,” and what they told him as a child about living in Europe during World War II. “They talked about the bombs, and the whole feeling of not having enough food.”

Weber said he couldn’t understand such danger and deprivation then, growing up on a peaceful farm in Pennsylvania, where his mother admonished him about cleaning his plate on behalf of starving children elsewhere. But after Sept. 11, he understood their feelings of fear and uncertainty, and appreciation for what they had. With no children of his own, Weber wondered, “Who am I going to pass this on to?

“I wanted to write a letter. I thought it would be really nice to write it to my youngest dog,” he said. Making the letter into a film allows others to eavesdrop, so “maybe somehow, somewhere, someone will know that wonderful moment when you pass something on to another generation.”

Viewers might see “True” as full of incongruous sights and sounds, wondering how the same movie can reconcile scenes of a farm girl frolicking in the mud wearing a Confederate flag visor, with pictures of Haitian refugee children, accompanied by audio of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Or feature a song co-written by Dr. Seuss, “Just Because We’re Kids,” playing over footage of a World War II air raid.

“I don’t like this idea that a film has to be a storyboard, that it all has to be decided before it’s shot,” said Weber, who has directed commercials for Calvin Klein and Volvo and music videos for Chris Isaak and the Pet Shop Boys. “I like to have the aliveness of it.”

Some reviews so far have criticized its stream-of-consciousness presentation as jumbled or rambling. But Weber is no mere poseur with a Panaflex. His film on jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, “Let’s Get Lost,” was nominated for an Academy Award for best feature-length documentary. That effort and his movie from the previous year, “Broken Noses,” won best documentary of 1988 and 1989, respectively, from the International Documentary Assn.

However, Weber is also used to having to explain his art. “Broken Noses” follows a former lightweight boxing champ who came from an abusive childhood and now coaches a boxing club for teens. Nevertheless, he said that film “is not about boxing, but forgiveness.” Just as “Letter to True” is not about Bogarde or a dog who survives being shot, or any of its other disparate elements.

“It’s about us taking responsibility for our neighbor, for each other,” he said.

Weber argues that the film is no more disjointed and random than life itself. The path of his own life, for example, intersects with Elizabeth Taylor, another dog lover and friend of Weber who is featured in the movie -- as well as Haitian refugees he photographed for a newspaper project and a trained elephant named Tai.

“It’s nice to see an abstract painting, and next to it an Andrew Wyeth,” he said, or Thelonious Monk riffing on a standard.

Who, he asks, needs linear and ordered? “I don’t think life is like that. Mine isn’t.... If your life is large, if it’s open,” then you embrace the varied relationships between people and events, Weber said. “All these things in life are really kind of connected.”