Art world confidential

ESTONIAN ANIMATION: Pärnography

by MALCOLM FRASER

Not to be confused with the international soccer association that certain regional leagues misguidedly cite in their “safety” rulings, FIFA, the International Festival of Films on Art, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. A head-spinning array of almost 300 films, spanning across the fine arts spectrum, is spilling out onto local screens; the following is but a selection of some of the highlights.

THIS ARTIST WILL SELF-DESTRUCT:
Here Is Always Somewhere Else

A number of the films have a Montreal connection, including one of the fest’s big-ticket items, Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture. This intimate portrait of 80-year-old local legend Phyllis Bronfman Lambert details her longstanding work as an architect, urban activist and founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

The fest is also working closely with other local arts institutions in their programming. In conjunction with the Disney show at the Museum of Fine Arts, FIFA is screening Il était une fois… Walt Disney, which details the European influence behind the quintessentially American cartoon kingpin. Animation fans should also check out Pärnography, a portrait of Estonian animator Priit Pärn and the thriving animation scene in his country.

BACK TO THE FACTORY:
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

Pop goes the easel

With the recent Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl getting universally bad press, what better time to get back to the real Factory universe? Though the ground has been pretty firmly tread already, Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film comes from Ric Burns, who’s previously helmed docs on Ansel Adams and Eugene O’Neill, as well as the New York series for PBS, so presumably knows what he’s doing. In Who Gets to Call It Art?, the ’60s New York art scene in general is profiled through a portrait of curator Henry Geldzahler, a mover and shaker who brought Warhol and many of his contemporaries to wider attention.

The aforementioned film’s titular age-old question is given a playful twist in Du Kinder Surprise considéré comme une oeuvre d’art, in which French director Pascal Goblot makes the case for his collection of 3,000 Kinder Surprise figures as legitimate artworks, a bevy of art theorists in tow.

Big bang theory

Whoever gets to declare what art is, it probably shouldn’t be the Taliban. Before their rise to mass attention on a certain September morning a few years back, they were best known internationally for destroying two giant sixth-century statues of the Buddha on a flimsy religious pretext. Christian Frei’s The Giant Buddhas explores the history of the statues, and gathers testimony from some of the witnesses to their destruction.

Speaking of ancient ruins, a must for culturally curious CHOM listeners is Ça Ira, which details the efforts of Pink Floyd honcho and notorious control freak Roger Waters to follow in the footsteps of Paul McCartney and cross over to the classical world—specifically, an opera based on the French revolution.

Rock star dabbling is pretty bizarre, but the classical world has seen weirder, like the practice of castrating boy sopranos so their voices would stay high past puberty. This ancient practice, which Pope Clement XIV quite sensibly outlawed in the late 18th century, is the subject of Castrato, in which a group of musicians and scientists attempt to recreate the sound of the castrati singers. As an added bonus, Michael Maniaci, an adult singer whose voice has stayed high without a severance of the family jewels, also performs a number. For those who like their classical docs a little more on the straightforward side, veteran local documentarian Donald Winkler presents his new film, Ode pour un Requiem, which tells the story of how Mozart’s Requiem came to be, culminating with a performance of the piece at the St-Jean-Baptiste Church.

ARTIST AND PANHANDLER: Photo Souvenir

Life in pictures

From Mozart on down, there’s no shortage of films profiling big names: Robert Mapplethorpe; David LaChappelle: Du pop art à la provocation; Rem Koolhaas, Architecte XXL; Richard Serra—Thinking on Your Feet; James Ellroy: American Dog; Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner; Keith Jarrett—The Art of Improvisation and Kiki Smith: Squatting the Palace are just a few. If you’d prefer to take a chance on a film about a lesser-known artist, there’s no less of an array of choices. Photo Souvenir tells the story of Philippe Koudjina, a sort of Ryan Larkin-like figure in Niger, where he went from successful photographer to disabled panhandler. A World Famous Person Unknown: Éva Zeisel profiles the Hungarian design legend, who survived persecution under both Stalin and Hitler and is still designing away at the age of 100. Here Is Always Somewhere Else documents the life and work of Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, whose self-destructive performances culminated in his disappearance while trying to cross the Atlantic in a sailboat for the glory of art.

A strong Can-con contingent includes an eponymous doc on Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook and Butte, a documentary of an outdoor dance piece by choreographer Byron Chief-Moon. In addition to the multitude of documentaries, the fest is also presenting a number of video art pieces, including retrospectives of local notable Chantal duPont, Victoria artist Brian MacDonald and video art granddaddy Nam June Paik. Local cinema collective Main Film is also celebrating its 25th this year, so the fest has thoughtfully programmed a selection of recent work by its members including Claudie Lévesque, Kara Blake, Pascale Ferland and Kirby Hammond.

TOY GLORY: Du Kinder Surprise
considéré comme une oeuvre d’art

Not all the docs have English subtitles, so the unilingual among us should check the program for details. All in all, it’s a cornucopia of quality befitting a longstanding champ in this festival-ridden town.

THE FESTIVAL OF FILM ON ART SCREENS
MARCH 8–18. FOR MORE INFO,
VISIT WWW.ARTFIFA.COM

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