Press Kit | no. 887-02
31st International Festival of Films on Art!
Montreal, Canada
International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA)
248 REASONS TO EMBRACE ART !
March 14 to 24, 2013
Montreal, Canada, 2013-03-11 -
FIFA’s founding director René Rozon is proud to announce the program of the 31st International Festival of Films on Art, to be held from March 14 to 24.
Presented in association with Astral, this edition has everything to please art-lovers. In addition to 248 films from 28 countries, a wide array of special events has been planned, including meetings with artists, exhibitions, performances, installations, roundtables, tributes and master classes.
What’s more, the International Market of Films on Arts (MIFA) is back this year, as is our Children’s Screening for a second year in row. In other words, a diverse and dazzling program!
CANADIAN AND QUEBEC FILMS
STREET ART
In Making a Name, Patrick O’Connor penetrates the world of Montreal graffiti artists, showing the tensions that exist in this clandestine art form.
DANCE
A Morte in braccio, by Mario Côté, pays homage to Jeanne Renaud’s choreography Déformité and Handel’s aria Scherza Infida. Ce sont eux, by Yves St-Pierre and Sylvain Poirier, is a poetic portrait of 42 dancers from three generations, who have all contributed to the development of Quebec dance.
LITERATURE
In competition, Justin Simms’ film Hard Light / Lumière Crue draws a portrait of Newfoundland and its inhabitants through the writings of poet-novelist Michael Crummey. Also in competition, Joe Balass’s La Longueur de l’alphabet focuses on the Quebec-based man of letters Naïm Kattan, who has a unique perspective on contemporary history.
FINE CRAFTS
With Azulejos. Une utopie céramique, Luís de Moura Sobral attempts to explain how this five-century-old technique has given rise to a major form of monumental decoration.
PAINTING
In Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam, Paul Eichhorn traces the artistic path of Ojibway artist Carl Beam, who influenced an entire generation of Aboriginal artists. In Corno, Guy Édoin enters the studio of Quebec artist Johanne Corneau, who achieved international acclaim in New York. Alan Collins’ Drowning in Colour, The Art of Wayne Boucher immerses viewers into the world of this Abstract artist from Nova Scotia. Mario Côté’s latest production, Fernand Leduc, la peinture et les mots, provides a retrospective look at the career of this legendary Quebec painter, a signatory of the Refus Global manifesto. Land of the Chartreuse Moose: The Life and Legacy of Ted Harrison, by Monty Bassett, presents the Yukon’s best-known painter, a British artist who fell in love with the Canadian landscape. William Kurelek’s The Maze, by Robert M. Young, recounts this Canadian artist’s life through his paintings and on-camera revelations. In Yvon Goulet, peintre marginal?, Pierre Blackburn focuses on the first Montreal artist to depict openly gay themes, and a body of works that spans three decades.
PHOTOGRAPHY
In Helen Doyle’s Dans un océan d’images, the works of several photojournalists in Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Cambodia help us to better understand the world’s upheavals and chaos.
THEATRE
A film in competition, Marie-Pascale Laurencelle’s Crée-moi, crée-moi pas ponders the artist-mother duality; Geneviève Rioux interviews Nancy Huston, Agnès Jaoui, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Évelyne de la Chenelière, Mylène Roy, Valérie Blass and Béatrice Bonifassi. Gilles Pelletier, un cœur de marin, directed by Pascal Gélinas, looks back on the career of this eminent figure of Quebec theatre and television, who started out to become a sailor. In competition, Pascal Gélinas’ Huguette Oligny, le goût de vivre testifies to the wisdom of this great Quebec actress, who expounds on topics dear to her: her happiness at growing older, her past suffering, her children, her faith in God.
INTERNATIONAL SELECTION
ANIMATION
As part of the Children’s Corner presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Les 4 saisons d’Antoine, by Philippe Béziat, relates the story of a 10-year-old boy whose grandfather gives him a magical book for his birthday, from which an orchestra emerges, playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons… With Le Songe chorégraphique de M. Malade, Frédéric St-Hilaire presents a unique stop-motion fantasy choreographed with Lego figures.
ARCHEOLOGY
Angkor : la civilisation engloutie, by Saléha Gherdane, attempts to penetrate the mysteries behind the disappearance of the capital of the Khmer Empire, the world’s largest city in the 13th century. Frédéric Wilner’s La Fin de l’âge des pyramides sheds light on the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the golden age of ancient Egypt, after a terrible revolution left the pharaonic monuments in ruins.
ARCHITECTURE
The Barrágan House—A Universal Value, by Tufic Makhlouf Akl, takes us inside the home of the celebrated Mexican artist Luis Barrágan, a unique architectural structure that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Denis Sneguirev’s Bolchoï, une renaissance chronicles the titantic efforts of architects, engineers and workers to restore the former glory of this iconic Russian theatre. Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line, by Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper, underscores the New York agency’s creative efforts to renovate and revitalize the city’s architecture. Filmed in all four seasons, Kenneth Love’s Fallingwater: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterwork traces the genesis of this extraordinary vacation home built directly over a waterfall. In Matti Reinikka’s Helsinki Music Centre—Prelude, the four main protagonists describe the birth of this concert hall and the controversy sparked by its enormous cost. Alice Agneskirchner’s Modern Ruins—Detroit: Hope for the Motor City describes the various ways artists are trying to reappropriate and reinvigorate a city in steep decline. Director Giosuè Boetto Cohen, in Paolo Soleri: A Town to Save Mankind, elucidates the works of this Turin-born architect and urban planner, along with his concept of “arcology,” the basis for his self-sustainable city in the Arizona desert. Sagrada: Le mystère de la création, by Stephan Haupt, traces the origins of this cathedral designed by the visionary Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Under construction since 1882, it is still only half-finished.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Art 21—Art in the Twenty-First Century: History, directed by Susan Sollins, shows the extent to which the works of artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley and Marina Abramovic are tied to history, each artist challenging preconceived ideas about historical “truths” and forging links between past and present events. In Behind the Wall, Rolando Javier Almirante Castillo and Sebastián Cordero recall the stages of the “Behind the Wall” project, which involved 25 Cuban artists at the 11th International Biennale in Havana. In La Crucifixion, le scandale sacré, Olivier Besse demonstrates how the Church has used the image of the crucifixion to its own advantage for centuries, and how the icon has been reappropriated—often scandalously—by secular contemporary artists. In Mémoire des fluides — Giuseppe Penone sculpteur, Giampaolo Penco followed over the course of a year this leading exponent of “Arte Povera,” which attempted to return art to what is truly essential, to the core relationship between nature and culture. In Sol Lewitt, Chris Teerink presents a rare portrait of a discreet and private man who refused prizes, did not want his picture taken and hardly ever gave interviews. For him, what mattered was the work. Victoria Clay Mendoza’s Sophie Calle, sans titre looks back at the career of an artist who made her own life the focus of her art, incorporating her own writings, photos, videos and personal objects: veritable traces and symbols of her existence.
COMIC STRIP
Richard Hamon’s Patrice Pellerin, l’histoire par la bande recounts the genesis of L’Épervier, set in the 18th century, which leapt from bookstore bins to television screens around the world, selling nearly a million copies in the process. In Sex in the ComiX, Joëlle Oosterlinck explores his subject through the works of some of the genre’s most prominent artists. In King of Comics, Rosa Von Praunheim profiles Ralf König, who has drawn the ire of numerous institutions for his mockery of Judeo-Christian myths, Islam, the police and stereotypes, using the imagery of the gay world with finesse and humour.
COLLECTIONS
Koert Davidse’s Asian Delight profiles Ferry Bertholet, who has collected Chinese erotic art for more than thirty years, most of which would have been banned and destroyed in China. In Dans les pas de Joseph Conrad, Paul Ouazan illustrates the young novelist’s voyage up the Congo River as a steamer captain, using photographs from the collection of Arnaud Delas. Andrew Shea’s documentary Portrait of Wally recounts the battle for control of this portrait of Walburga Neuzil created by Austrian artist Egon Schiele in 1912, which was pillaged by the Nazis.
DANCE
Sonia Herman Dolz’s The Ballet Masters shows how choreographic history is handed down, how crucial knowledge is transferred from one generation of dancers to the next, without which the heritage of classical ballet would be lost. In Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, Bob Hercules demonstrates how the Joffrey Ballet has renewed dance, shattering the aesthetic codes to create a modern dance based on ballet techniques and popular and rock music. Merce Cunningham, la danse en héritage, by Marie-Hélène Rebois, looks at the extraordinary career of this American choreographer who revolutionized contemporary dance, and the challenge of preserving his heritage. Rain, directed by Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, follows the rehearsal process of the illustrious Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris, who performed Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Rain in 2011. The result of a close collaboration with Australian jazz musician Mick Nock, Sue Healey’s Virtuosi presents portraits of eight talented New Zealand dancers, who have left their homeland to make their mark on the international stage.
DESIGN
Claudio Zulian’s Fortuny and the Magic Lantern features the creations of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, who revolutionized the fashion of his time with his textiles, photographs, prints, lamps and sculptures. La Poussette Maclaren, by Anna-Célia Kendall, recounts the story of the Maclaren B-01 stroller, designed by an aerospace engineer for a generation of discriminating and highly mobile parents. In Scandinavian Design, Lone Krüger sheds light on the long and rich tradition of design in Scandinavian countries, explaining how these traditions have been refined, reinterpreted or rejected by younger designers. The Successor of Kakiemon, by Suzanne Raes, describes how the secrets of this near-mythical Japanese porcelain have been passed on from father to son for fourteen generations, and how its survival is threatened in the modern era.
LITERATURE
In Amélie Nothomb, une vie entre deux eaux, Luca Chiari revisits the memories and emotions of the Belgian novelist, who spent the first five years of her life in Japan. The Dreams of William Golding, by Adam Low, looks back on the life and career of the author of The Lord of the Flies, revealing his obsessions, dreams and demons. The Fatwa—Salman’s Story, by Jill Nichols, examines literary censorship and the death sentence imposed on the author of The Satanic Verses. In Frankenstein: A Modern Myth, Adam Low examines this gothic masterpiece that continues to influence several generations of artists, including Danny Boyle at the National Theatre in London, where we get an exclusive look at rehearsals and interviews with the major players. Leila Férault-Levy’s Gao Xingjian, celui qui marche seul looks back on the career of the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2000), who has lived in exile since his works were banned in his homeland. With Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, Mary McDonagh examines the only novel ever published by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar for its screen adaptation. Blandine Armand’s Michel Butor, l’écrivain migrateur explores the world of this staggeringly prolific author, who has published over 2,000 books, in all narrative forms, over his fifty-year career. Water Marked, by Rax Rinnekangas, relates the story of a half-Jewish photographer who arrives in Venice in winter to contemplate the beauty of the “other Leningrad,” which inspired the exiled Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.
FASHION
Coeur de papier: Isabelle de Borchgrave, directed by Janick Cardiec, is a journey into the haute couture world of the Belgian designer and stylist who creates 18th century shoes, Coco Chanel knock-offs and Marie-Antoinette’s bathrobe—all life-sized and made of paper. In L’impressionnisme, éloge de la mode, Anne Andreu explains how the painting of this period depicted fashion, how it gave clothing a central role in everyday life, turning accessories into symbols of seduction. The series of three films by Olivier Nicklaus entitled Fashion! spans three decades, from 1980 to the present, showing the creations of the world’s greatest designers. In Golden Eighties, Antifashion and Go Global, we witness the end of the reign of Yves Saint-Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy and the emergence of Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa. Nicolas Ghesquière, Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld.
MUSEUMS
Louvre-Lens, la galerie du temps, by Michaël Gaumnitz, takes us to an astonishing museum, a veritable time machine that employs the very latest display technologies. La Main tendue, les arts de l’Islam au Louvre, by Richard Copans, chronicles the birth of this Islamic Arts department at the Louvre, taking viewers to Agra, Istanbul, Cairo and Cordoba. In Orsay, Bruno Ulmer traces the history of the Musée d’Orsay, which has become the world’s finest showcase of 19th century art, with masterpieces by Manet, Degas, Courbet, Monet and Renoir.
MUSIC
In Amy Winehouse—The Day She Came to Dingle, Maurice Linnane captures the famous singer’s appearance on Other Voices, an Irish television series filmed in Dingle every winter; after leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy talks about her music and influences. In Andy Sommer’s Atom Heart Mother, British composer Ron Geesin analyzes this concept album by Pink Floyd, which was to become a landmark in music history. In Je suis venu vous dire… Gainsbourg by Ginzburg, Pierre-Henry Salfati portrays this consummate artist and provocateur through rare or never-seen-before interviews with the singer himself, who touched on all styles of music. Coinciding with the centenary of the birth of John Cage, Paul Smaczny’s John Cage—Journeys in Sound combines rare archival footage, concert excerpts and interviews to reveal the many facets of this revolutionary sound inventor, performance artist and Zen master. Le Mystère musical coréen, by Thierry Loreau, sheds light on the unprecedented success of South Korean musicians on the Western classical stage. Nicola Benedetti, by Christopher Walker, portrays this Italian-born Scottish violinist through concert footage and her volunteer work with underprivileged children. In No Ideas But in Things—The Composer Alvin Lucier, Viola Rusche looks back on the life and career of this composer of genius. Pinkfonik, by Sergio R. Zaurin, tells the story of two musicians in a car who watch helplessly as a confrontation between rioting students and police prevents them from getting to a rehearsal, just one day before the biggest event in their lives: a symphonic tribute to British rockers Pink Floyd. Punkt: A Revolution in Live Composing, by Guillaume Dero, examines the Punkt Festival in Norway, where concerts on the main stage are remixed immediately in a studio open to the public. With Road movie, un portrait de John Adams, Mark Kidel explores the works of a musician who is widely acknowledged as America’s greatest contemporary composer. Also directed by Mark Kidel, Set the Piano Stool on Fire captures a meeting between 14-year-old Kit Armstrong, a gifted young musician, mathematician and philosopher, and his mentor, renowned pianist Alfred Brendel.
OPERA
Susan Froemke’s James Levine: America’s Maestro reveals how the celebrated music director transformed the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra into one of the best in the world. Wagner’s Dream, also directed by Susan Froemke, follows Robert Lepage’s efforts to realize Wagner’s dream of staging a Ring using only one set for all four cycles of the work.
PAINTING
With Amos Ferguson, Match Me if You Can, Karen Arthur pays tribute to the Bahamas’ most prolific and significant artist. Cosmos Runge, the Dawn of Romanticism, by Nathalie David, is a poetic documentary about Philipp Otto Runge, the most important painter, with Caspar David Friedrich, of German Romanticism. Martin Fraudreau’s David et la mort de Marat — Un peintre en révolution describes French painter David’s assignment to depict the murder of the journalist Marat as a symbol of the French Revolution. In Degas, le corps mis à nu, Sandra Paugam shows how the French painter revolutionized the way in which the female body was represented. Edgar Howard, in Eric Fischl: The Process of Painting, looks back on the career of a figurative painter with a brutal pictorial language, who consistently went against the current of his time. In the documentary Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape, Carroll Moore explores the influences on the Catalonian painter: Dada, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, as well as the tragic events of the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and Franco’s dictatorship. Léger au front, by Philippe Lanfranchi, presents the horrors of the First World War through the eyes of painter Fernand Léger, who served as a stretcher-bearer for almost four years. Rolf Iseli, dialogue avec les traces du temps, by Claude Stadelamann, presents the work of a painter who derived inspiration from hundreds of dinosaur tracks dating back 150 million years. In Salvador Dali, génie tragi-comique, François Lévy-Kuentz describes the complex personality of the Surrealist and the myth he spent his entire life creating. La Toile blanche d’Edward Hopper / Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas, by Jean-Pierre Devillers, reveals the fierce independence of a painter who remained hostile to the limitations of modern American art, which tended toward abstraction. Without Gorky, by Cosima Spender, takes us through the family’s pain and tribulations in the aftermath of the Armenian painter’s suicide.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, by Ben Shapiro, explores the influential artist’s haunting, surreal and highly elaborate portraits of suburban life. In The Man Who Invented Himself—Duane Michals, Camille Guichard provides a glimpse into the life of the octogenarian American photographer, visiting the places that influenced his work, including Pittsburgh, New York and the wilds of Vermont. La Nouvelle objectivité allemande, by Stan Neumann, sheds light on the Düsseldorf School, which included some of the 20th century’s most influential photographers. With Le Siècle de Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Assouline depicts the 20th century through the eyes and words of the famous French photographer, with the aid of archival documents, film clips, drawings and photographs. Voyage in Time, by Tung-Yen Chou, is a profile of acrobat-dancer Ming-Cheng Huang, who photographed himself performing handstands at various sites around the world.
SCULPTURE
Kenny Dalsheimer’s Bending Sticks: The Sculpture of Patrick Dougherty celebrates the 25-year career of the world-renowned environmental artist, as he creates site-specific sculptures out of nothing more than saplings. Alain Fleischer’s Brancusi was shot entirely at the Atelier Brancusi in Paris, which the artist left in his will to the French state, along with surprisingly rich amateur footage shot by the artist himself. In Reinhoud, mon sculpteur, Blaise D’Haese films his father, the Flemish sculptor and former member of the Cobra group, during the last two years of his life.
THEATRE
Krzysztof Rzaczynski’s In the Cause of the Spirit follows Polish theatre director Jerzy Jarocki (1929-2012) as he works on his final production: a play based on the epic poems of Juliusz Slowacki, a central figure in Polish romanticism. In the biography Jonathan Miller, David Thompson describes the multiple talents of this British theatre director, author, photographer, sculptor, filmmaker, television host—and trained physician. Suzannah Wander’s Nicholas Hytner portrays the artistic director of the National Theatre in London, who is responsible for such hits as War Horse, One Man, Two Guvnors, History Boys and Miss Saigon. Within a Tempest. The Island, by Laurentiu Damian, outlines the creative process of the acclaimed Romanian stage director, Silviu Purcarete, as he oversees a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
TRIBUTE
Every year, FIFA pays tribute to a producer, director or distributor who has contributed to the development of films on art. For this 31st edition, the work of filmmaker Gerald Fox will be in the spotlight.
Twelve of his films will be screened, including Brazil With Caetano Veloso, which looks at the impact of Brazilian music through the eyes of one of its most illustrious practitioners. In Christian Boltanski, Fox conveys the complexity of the relationship between the individual experience of the French artist and the pivotal moments of history. Claes Oldenburg is a journey into the heart of the world of one of the most famous representatives of American Pop Art of the 1960s. Winner of the Grand Prize at the 16th FIFA, The Fundamental Gilbert and George tells the story of the most eccentric and controversial artists on the contemporary British scene. For Gerhard Richter, Fox met the celebrated German artist at his home in Cologne, as he was preparing to create a new series of paintings. The Grand Prize winner at the 23rd FIFA, Leaving Home Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank provides a window on the life of this legendary photographer and fillmmmaker, known in particular for his films Pull My Daisy, Me and My Brother and the notorious Cocksucker Blues about the Rolling Stones. Life Support—Marc Quinn depicts the enormous frozen garden created in Milan by the contemporary British artist, who accidentally falls into the tank. Marianne Faithfull—A Life in Song follows a concert tour by this notorious, and immensely talented, British singer who first achieved fame at age 17 with the song “As Tears Go By,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
MEDIA ART
In this year’s Experimental FIFA, curator Nicole Gingras has brought together works by Canadian and foreign artists created between 1977 and 2013.
Two programs are devoted to Canadian artist Jan Peacock, winner of the 2012 Governor’s General Prize in Visual and Media Arts. The first program comprises four works from 1977 to 1987, including Sirensong, and the second features six films from 1995 to 2012, including Midnight Reader.
A selection of fifteen films by John Porter, a champion of Super 8 film, will be screened on the four walls of a festival theatre. Incorporating performances by the filmmaker, the event will leave audiences spellbound.
In the Interactions section, Hank Bull will give a talk on the celebrated Chinese landscape Autumn Colours on the Que and Hua Mountains by Zhao Mengfu, while Jan Peacock will discuss Vito Acconci’s The Red Tapes.
Seven films are featured in the Short Films Program, including Stephen Andrews’ Dramatis Personae, which uses cult photos and film sequences to create an experimental art form. In Souffles, Diane Morin animates objects by subjecting them to tiny explosions, which generate light and movement.
WallPaper, The video installation presented by Ed Pien explores the notion of ornamental decoration as a meeting point between East and West, the work’s fanciful floral motif serving to underscore this cultural crossbreeding. Twelve of his videos and filmed performances will also be presented in a work entitled Jouer / Play.
Toronto artist Johannes Zits is presenting Montage, a video program, as well a live performance entitled Monticules de neige/Snow Mounds. Questioning the interaction of the body with its environment, he unhesitatingly uses his own body as an experimental support.
In the Diagonals section, 18 films will be screened. In Giuseppe Bucci’s Aller et retour, a pair of dancers, Giuseppe Bucci and Ambre Pini, enact their last meal together, laden with sighs, confessions and reminiscences. In Monique Moumblow’s Charles a man delivers a monologue in Danish, with simultaneous translation in English typed on an old typewriter, recounting the peculiar behaviour of his teenaged brother. Faire tapisserie, by Benoit Thomassin and Francis Pinard, captures a performance by Roxanne Chamberland; at a ball, an uninvited woman sits by the wall, waiting and waiting… until she gradually fades into the background. In Painted, Duncan McDowall illustrates a man’s tug-of-war with wilderness, while dancer Dorotea Saykaly performs a choreography inside an abandoned building that is gradually being invaded by nature.
FOCUS ON THE 7th ART
In Cinq pattes et trois sabots, Audrey Pernis examines the Soviet-influenced Kazakh film industry, conducting interviews at the Eurasia Film Festival in Almaty, the cultural capital of Kazakhstan. Christian Delage’s De Hollywood à Nuremberg. John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens examines the anti-war films of these celebrated directors. Dickens on Film, by Anthony Wall, attempts to answer the following question: why have Dickens’ novels inspired so many screen adaptations?
Pierre-Paul Puljiz’s Jonas Mekas: I Am Not a Filmmaker is the first documentary dedicated to this champion of independent film, who moved to New York after internment in a Nazi labour camp. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, by Kathy White, focuses on the only novel ever written by Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, a runaway success as both a book and a film. In Sandrine Bonnaire, actrice de sa vie, Juliette Cazanave provides an intimate glimpse of the extraordinary career of a woman who became an actress by chance and a director by choice. Le Sommeil d’or, by Davy Chou, attempts to revive the spirit of Cambodian cinema, which was brutally halted when the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. In The Teen Movie Boom, Clara and Julia Kuperberg examine this quintessentially American film genre, from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to The Social Network (2010). The Witch Hunt Is On, by the same directors, sheds light on a dark period in American history, the Cold War years, when several Hollywood stars were accused of being Communists and forced into exile.
As part of the Il était une fois series, FIFA is presenting 8 films from the collection Un film et son époque: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Last Tango in Paris, Notorious, Lawrence of Arabia, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Rome: Open City and Sailor & Lula.
TIME RECAPTURED
In the Anniversaries section, Philippe Baylaucq pays tribute to Liliane Stewart, the great patroness of the arts and champion of design and the decorative arts, in L’art de donner – Hommage à Liliane Stewart. With The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Revisited, Francis Hanly recounts the story of the controversial film broadcast by the BBC in 1967, whose disjointed script and chaotic psychedelia outraged many viewers. Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, assembled from over 600 hours of video, is the definitive film portrait of the former Beatle. Sonny Rollins—Beyond the Notes, directed by Dick Fontaine, celebrates the 80th birthday of this legendary tenor saxophonist, attended by the likes of Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman.
In the Memory section, FIFA is presenting films on three artistic luminaries who died in 2012: jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and writer Gore Vidal. The 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe will also be honoured.
The Thema section is presenting several exceptional films from the Leipzig-based production company Accentus. Die Thomaner – Une année avec les choristes de Saint-Thomas, by Paul Smaczny and Günter Atteln, chronicles a year in the life of this legendary boy’s choir. Michael Beyer’s St. Matthew Passion—St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig presents the St. Thomas boys choir in concert, on their 800th anniversary, performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterpiece with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Michael Beyer’s Bruckner 5—Claudia Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra captures a performance in the summer of 2011 of Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Also featured in the Thema section are four symphonies by Gustav Mahler. The Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig under the baton of Riccardo Chailly performs Symphony No. 2, as well as Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado, performs Symphony No. 9. Finally, Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Bavarian Symphony Radio Orchestra in a performance of Symphony No. 7 in E Minor.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Not to be missed is the Special Events series presented by Loto-Québec, beginning on March 5. For complete details on these fascinating encounters, consult the Special Events press release, the Festival schedule, or the FIFA website (www.artfifa.com).
OPENING FILM
A screening of The Fatwa—Salman’s Story by Jill Nicholls on Thursday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will be followed by a cocktail party in the Bronzes Gallery. By invitation only.
AWARDS CEREMONY
Mark Kidel’s Road Movie: A portrait of John Adams, presented on Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will be followed by the Awards Ceremonies and a cocktail party in the Bronzes Gallery. By invitation only.
BENEFIT GALA
The Benefit Gala of the 31st FIFA, to be held on Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will be presided over by two prominent figures from the National Bank of Canada: Caroline Rheault, Associate Vice President, Corporate Banking, Film and Television Groups, and Sylvain Corbeil, Vice President, Corporate Banking and Specialized Groups. Attended by the who’s who of Montreal’s art and business communities, the event will begin with a screening of Jean-Pierre Devillers’ Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium, and will be followed by a cocktail-buffet and silent auction in the Glass Court. Tickets: $250.
3RD INTERNATIONAL MARKET OF FILMS ON ART
The International Market of Films on Art (MIFA), the only one of its kind in the world, is back this year from March 20 to 23, this time at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Presentations, roundtables, pitch sessions, a video library and a much-appreciated appointment service. For further details, consult the Market press release or the FIFA website.
POSTER
Image from Constantin Brancusi’s La muse endormie, from the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
TRAILER
From Jean-Pierre Devillers’ film Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas.
INVALUABLE PARTNERS
The International Festival of Films on Art would not exist without the collaboration and financial support of its select group of partners. The Festival would like to thank Astral, Loto-Québec, Digital Cut and InterContinental Montréal, as well as Heritage Canada, Telefilm Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, the Secrétariat de la région métropolitaine, the Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité Sociale, the Festival and Cultural Event Office of the City of Montréal, the Conseil des Arts de Montréal and Tourism Montreal. It would also like to acknowledge its media partners: ARTV, Télé-Québec, TFO, Société Radio-Canada, Journal Métro, Voir and Le Devoir.
VENUES AND BOX OFFICE
FIFA will begin on March 14 at nine sites in downtown Montreal, such as the Grande Bibliothèque de la BANQ, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Centre Phi, Cinémathèque québécoise, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Place des Arts and Concordia University. FIFA will be back this year at the McCord Museum, and will present be for the first time at the Phi Centre.
Tickets are available beginning at noon, February 26, by telephone or in person at the Place des Arts box office: 514-842-2112 / 1-866-842-2112, 175 St. Catherine St. W., as well as on-line at www.artfifa.com. Tickets can also be obtained at the nine sites mentioned above, one hour before screenings.
Regular admission tickets cost $12 or $85 for a book of 8 tickets. A Media Arts Passport for five screenings, indicated in yellow in the program, is available at a cost of $25. Special rates for youth and senior citizens are also available. The entry fee for the Children’s screening is $5 for adults or children.
In addition, VIP tickets are available for $20. These no-reservation festival passes allow direct access to all public screenings, subject to availability. The Ambassador Passport, on sale until March 12 at a cost of $250, includes no-reservation admission to all public screenings, admission to the Opening Ceremonies and Awards Ceremonies, subject to availability, as well as a Festival catalogue and poster. It should be noted that the Art Film Matinées, indicated in beige in the program, are free for VIP members of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. For the first time, FIFA will offer to holders of the Accès Montréal card , a $2 rebate with the purchase of an Adult ticket for the Festival Matinées screenings.
Further information can be obtained on-line at www.artfifa.com; by phone at (514) 874-9972; at the FIFA kiosks beginning February 26 at the Espace culturel George-Émile-Lapalme of Place des Arts; from March 11 to 15 at the EV Building of Concordia University.
ABOUT FIFA
The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion and presentation of the finest productions on art and media art. An eleven-day competitive festival, it is the most important annual event of its kind in the world. FIFA has become a meeting point for artists and artisans from the art and film communities, as well as for art and cinema enthusiasts.
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Presented in association with Astral, this edition has everything to please art-lovers. In addition to 248 films from 28 countries, a wide array of special events has been planned, including meetings with artists, exhibitions, performances, installations, roundtables, tributes and master classes.
What’s more, the International Market of Films on Arts (MIFA) is back this year, as is our Children’s Screening for a second year in row. In other words, a diverse and dazzling program!
CANADIAN AND QUEBEC FILMS
STREET ART
In Making a Name, Patrick O’Connor penetrates the world of Montreal graffiti artists, showing the tensions that exist in this clandestine art form.
DANCE
A Morte in braccio, by Mario Côté, pays homage to Jeanne Renaud’s choreography Déformité and Handel’s aria Scherza Infida. Ce sont eux, by Yves St-Pierre and Sylvain Poirier, is a poetic portrait of 42 dancers from three generations, who have all contributed to the development of Quebec dance.
LITERATURE
In competition, Justin Simms’ film Hard Light / Lumière Crue draws a portrait of Newfoundland and its inhabitants through the writings of poet-novelist Michael Crummey. Also in competition, Joe Balass’s La Longueur de l’alphabet focuses on the Quebec-based man of letters Naïm Kattan, who has a unique perspective on contemporary history.
FINE CRAFTS
With Azulejos. Une utopie céramique, Luís de Moura Sobral attempts to explain how this five-century-old technique has given rise to a major form of monumental decoration.
PAINTING
In Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam, Paul Eichhorn traces the artistic path of Ojibway artist Carl Beam, who influenced an entire generation of Aboriginal artists. In Corno, Guy Édoin enters the studio of Quebec artist Johanne Corneau, who achieved international acclaim in New York. Alan Collins’ Drowning in Colour, The Art of Wayne Boucher immerses viewers into the world of this Abstract artist from Nova Scotia. Mario Côté’s latest production, Fernand Leduc, la peinture et les mots, provides a retrospective look at the career of this legendary Quebec painter, a signatory of the Refus Global manifesto. Land of the Chartreuse Moose: The Life and Legacy of Ted Harrison, by Monty Bassett, presents the Yukon’s best-known painter, a British artist who fell in love with the Canadian landscape. William Kurelek’s The Maze, by Robert M. Young, recounts this Canadian artist’s life through his paintings and on-camera revelations. In Yvon Goulet, peintre marginal?, Pierre Blackburn focuses on the first Montreal artist to depict openly gay themes, and a body of works that spans three decades.
PHOTOGRAPHY
In Helen Doyle’s Dans un océan d’images, the works of several photojournalists in Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Cambodia help us to better understand the world’s upheavals and chaos.
THEATRE
A film in competition, Marie-Pascale Laurencelle’s Crée-moi, crée-moi pas ponders the artist-mother duality; Geneviève Rioux interviews Nancy Huston, Agnès Jaoui, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Évelyne de la Chenelière, Mylène Roy, Valérie Blass and Béatrice Bonifassi. Gilles Pelletier, un cœur de marin, directed by Pascal Gélinas, looks back on the career of this eminent figure of Quebec theatre and television, who started out to become a sailor. In competition, Pascal Gélinas’ Huguette Oligny, le goût de vivre testifies to the wisdom of this great Quebec actress, who expounds on topics dear to her: her happiness at growing older, her past suffering, her children, her faith in God.
INTERNATIONAL SELECTION
ANIMATION
As part of the Children’s Corner presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Les 4 saisons d’Antoine, by Philippe Béziat, relates the story of a 10-year-old boy whose grandfather gives him a magical book for his birthday, from which an orchestra emerges, playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons… With Le Songe chorégraphique de M. Malade, Frédéric St-Hilaire presents a unique stop-motion fantasy choreographed with Lego figures.
ARCHEOLOGY
Angkor : la civilisation engloutie, by Saléha Gherdane, attempts to penetrate the mysteries behind the disappearance of the capital of the Khmer Empire, the world’s largest city in the 13th century. Frédéric Wilner’s La Fin de l’âge des pyramides sheds light on the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the golden age of ancient Egypt, after a terrible revolution left the pharaonic monuments in ruins.
ARCHITECTURE
The Barrágan House—A Universal Value, by Tufic Makhlouf Akl, takes us inside the home of the celebrated Mexican artist Luis Barrágan, a unique architectural structure that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Denis Sneguirev’s Bolchoï, une renaissance chronicles the titantic efforts of architects, engineers and workers to restore the former glory of this iconic Russian theatre. Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line, by Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper, underscores the New York agency’s creative efforts to renovate and revitalize the city’s architecture. Filmed in all four seasons, Kenneth Love’s Fallingwater: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterwork traces the genesis of this extraordinary vacation home built directly over a waterfall. In Matti Reinikka’s Helsinki Music Centre—Prelude, the four main protagonists describe the birth of this concert hall and the controversy sparked by its enormous cost. Alice Agneskirchner’s Modern Ruins—Detroit: Hope for the Motor City describes the various ways artists are trying to reappropriate and reinvigorate a city in steep decline. Director Giosuè Boetto Cohen, in Paolo Soleri: A Town to Save Mankind, elucidates the works of this Turin-born architect and urban planner, along with his concept of “arcology,” the basis for his self-sustainable city in the Arizona desert. Sagrada: Le mystère de la création, by Stephan Haupt, traces the origins of this cathedral designed by the visionary Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Under construction since 1882, it is still only half-finished.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Art 21—Art in the Twenty-First Century: History, directed by Susan Sollins, shows the extent to which the works of artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley and Marina Abramovic are tied to history, each artist challenging preconceived ideas about historical “truths” and forging links between past and present events. In Behind the Wall, Rolando Javier Almirante Castillo and Sebastián Cordero recall the stages of the “Behind the Wall” project, which involved 25 Cuban artists at the 11th International Biennale in Havana. In La Crucifixion, le scandale sacré, Olivier Besse demonstrates how the Church has used the image of the crucifixion to its own advantage for centuries, and how the icon has been reappropriated—often scandalously—by secular contemporary artists. In Mémoire des fluides — Giuseppe Penone sculpteur, Giampaolo Penco followed over the course of a year this leading exponent of “Arte Povera,” which attempted to return art to what is truly essential, to the core relationship between nature and culture. In Sol Lewitt, Chris Teerink presents a rare portrait of a discreet and private man who refused prizes, did not want his picture taken and hardly ever gave interviews. For him, what mattered was the work. Victoria Clay Mendoza’s Sophie Calle, sans titre looks back at the career of an artist who made her own life the focus of her art, incorporating her own writings, photos, videos and personal objects: veritable traces and symbols of her existence.
COMIC STRIP
Richard Hamon’s Patrice Pellerin, l’histoire par la bande recounts the genesis of L’Épervier, set in the 18th century, which leapt from bookstore bins to television screens around the world, selling nearly a million copies in the process. In Sex in the ComiX, Joëlle Oosterlinck explores his subject through the works of some of the genre’s most prominent artists. In King of Comics, Rosa Von Praunheim profiles Ralf König, who has drawn the ire of numerous institutions for his mockery of Judeo-Christian myths, Islam, the police and stereotypes, using the imagery of the gay world with finesse and humour.
COLLECTIONS
Koert Davidse’s Asian Delight profiles Ferry Bertholet, who has collected Chinese erotic art for more than thirty years, most of which would have been banned and destroyed in China. In Dans les pas de Joseph Conrad, Paul Ouazan illustrates the young novelist’s voyage up the Congo River as a steamer captain, using photographs from the collection of Arnaud Delas. Andrew Shea’s documentary Portrait of Wally recounts the battle for control of this portrait of Walburga Neuzil created by Austrian artist Egon Schiele in 1912, which was pillaged by the Nazis.
DANCE
Sonia Herman Dolz’s The Ballet Masters shows how choreographic history is handed down, how crucial knowledge is transferred from one generation of dancers to the next, without which the heritage of classical ballet would be lost. In Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, Bob Hercules demonstrates how the Joffrey Ballet has renewed dance, shattering the aesthetic codes to create a modern dance based on ballet techniques and popular and rock music. Merce Cunningham, la danse en héritage, by Marie-Hélène Rebois, looks at the extraordinary career of this American choreographer who revolutionized contemporary dance, and the challenge of preserving his heritage. Rain, directed by Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, follows the rehearsal process of the illustrious Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris, who performed Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Rain in 2011. The result of a close collaboration with Australian jazz musician Mick Nock, Sue Healey’s Virtuosi presents portraits of eight talented New Zealand dancers, who have left their homeland to make their mark on the international stage.
DESIGN
Claudio Zulian’s Fortuny and the Magic Lantern features the creations of Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, who revolutionized the fashion of his time with his textiles, photographs, prints, lamps and sculptures. La Poussette Maclaren, by Anna-Célia Kendall, recounts the story of the Maclaren B-01 stroller, designed by an aerospace engineer for a generation of discriminating and highly mobile parents. In Scandinavian Design, Lone Krüger sheds light on the long and rich tradition of design in Scandinavian countries, explaining how these traditions have been refined, reinterpreted or rejected by younger designers. The Successor of Kakiemon, by Suzanne Raes, describes how the secrets of this near-mythical Japanese porcelain have been passed on from father to son for fourteen generations, and how its survival is threatened in the modern era.
LITERATURE
In Amélie Nothomb, une vie entre deux eaux, Luca Chiari revisits the memories and emotions of the Belgian novelist, who spent the first five years of her life in Japan. The Dreams of William Golding, by Adam Low, looks back on the life and career of the author of The Lord of the Flies, revealing his obsessions, dreams and demons. The Fatwa—Salman’s Story, by Jill Nichols, examines literary censorship and the death sentence imposed on the author of The Satanic Verses. In Frankenstein: A Modern Myth, Adam Low examines this gothic masterpiece that continues to influence several generations of artists, including Danny Boyle at the National Theatre in London, where we get an exclusive look at rehearsals and interviews with the major players. Leila Férault-Levy’s Gao Xingjian, celui qui marche seul looks back on the career of the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2000), who has lived in exile since his works were banned in his homeland. With Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, Mary McDonagh examines the only novel ever published by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar for its screen adaptation. Blandine Armand’s Michel Butor, l’écrivain migrateur explores the world of this staggeringly prolific author, who has published over 2,000 books, in all narrative forms, over his fifty-year career. Water Marked, by Rax Rinnekangas, relates the story of a half-Jewish photographer who arrives in Venice in winter to contemplate the beauty of the “other Leningrad,” which inspired the exiled Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky.
FASHION
Coeur de papier: Isabelle de Borchgrave, directed by Janick Cardiec, is a journey into the haute couture world of the Belgian designer and stylist who creates 18th century shoes, Coco Chanel knock-offs and Marie-Antoinette’s bathrobe—all life-sized and made of paper. In L’impressionnisme, éloge de la mode, Anne Andreu explains how the painting of this period depicted fashion, how it gave clothing a central role in everyday life, turning accessories into symbols of seduction. The series of three films by Olivier Nicklaus entitled Fashion! spans three decades, from 1980 to the present, showing the creations of the world’s greatest designers. In Golden Eighties, Antifashion and Go Global, we witness the end of the reign of Yves Saint-Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy and the emergence of Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa. Nicolas Ghesquière, Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld.
MUSEUMS
Louvre-Lens, la galerie du temps, by Michaël Gaumnitz, takes us to an astonishing museum, a veritable time machine that employs the very latest display technologies. La Main tendue, les arts de l’Islam au Louvre, by Richard Copans, chronicles the birth of this Islamic Arts department at the Louvre, taking viewers to Agra, Istanbul, Cairo and Cordoba. In Orsay, Bruno Ulmer traces the history of the Musée d’Orsay, which has become the world’s finest showcase of 19th century art, with masterpieces by Manet, Degas, Courbet, Monet and Renoir.
MUSIC
In Amy Winehouse—The Day She Came to Dingle, Maurice Linnane captures the famous singer’s appearance on Other Voices, an Irish television series filmed in Dingle every winter; after leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy talks about her music and influences. In Andy Sommer’s Atom Heart Mother, British composer Ron Geesin analyzes this concept album by Pink Floyd, which was to become a landmark in music history. In Je suis venu vous dire… Gainsbourg by Ginzburg, Pierre-Henry Salfati portrays this consummate artist and provocateur through rare or never-seen-before interviews with the singer himself, who touched on all styles of music. Coinciding with the centenary of the birth of John Cage, Paul Smaczny’s John Cage—Journeys in Sound combines rare archival footage, concert excerpts and interviews to reveal the many facets of this revolutionary sound inventor, performance artist and Zen master. Le Mystère musical coréen, by Thierry Loreau, sheds light on the unprecedented success of South Korean musicians on the Western classical stage. Nicola Benedetti, by Christopher Walker, portrays this Italian-born Scottish violinist through concert footage and her volunteer work with underprivileged children. In No Ideas But in Things—The Composer Alvin Lucier, Viola Rusche looks back on the life and career of this composer of genius. Pinkfonik, by Sergio R. Zaurin, tells the story of two musicians in a car who watch helplessly as a confrontation between rioting students and police prevents them from getting to a rehearsal, just one day before the biggest event in their lives: a symphonic tribute to British rockers Pink Floyd. Punkt: A Revolution in Live Composing, by Guillaume Dero, examines the Punkt Festival in Norway, where concerts on the main stage are remixed immediately in a studio open to the public. With Road movie, un portrait de John Adams, Mark Kidel explores the works of a musician who is widely acknowledged as America’s greatest contemporary composer. Also directed by Mark Kidel, Set the Piano Stool on Fire captures a meeting between 14-year-old Kit Armstrong, a gifted young musician, mathematician and philosopher, and his mentor, renowned pianist Alfred Brendel.
OPERA
Susan Froemke’s James Levine: America’s Maestro reveals how the celebrated music director transformed the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra into one of the best in the world. Wagner’s Dream, also directed by Susan Froemke, follows Robert Lepage’s efforts to realize Wagner’s dream of staging a Ring using only one set for all four cycles of the work.
PAINTING
With Amos Ferguson, Match Me if You Can, Karen Arthur pays tribute to the Bahamas’ most prolific and significant artist. Cosmos Runge, the Dawn of Romanticism, by Nathalie David, is a poetic documentary about Philipp Otto Runge, the most important painter, with Caspar David Friedrich, of German Romanticism. Martin Fraudreau’s David et la mort de Marat — Un peintre en révolution describes French painter David’s assignment to depict the murder of the journalist Marat as a symbol of the French Revolution. In Degas, le corps mis à nu, Sandra Paugam shows how the French painter revolutionized the way in which the female body was represented. Edgar Howard, in Eric Fischl: The Process of Painting, looks back on the career of a figurative painter with a brutal pictorial language, who consistently went against the current of his time. In the documentary Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape, Carroll Moore explores the influences on the Catalonian painter: Dada, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, as well as the tragic events of the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and Franco’s dictatorship. Léger au front, by Philippe Lanfranchi, presents the horrors of the First World War through the eyes of painter Fernand Léger, who served as a stretcher-bearer for almost four years. Rolf Iseli, dialogue avec les traces du temps, by Claude Stadelamann, presents the work of a painter who derived inspiration from hundreds of dinosaur tracks dating back 150 million years. In Salvador Dali, génie tragi-comique, François Lévy-Kuentz describes the complex personality of the Surrealist and the myth he spent his entire life creating. La Toile blanche d’Edward Hopper / Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas, by Jean-Pierre Devillers, reveals the fierce independence of a painter who remained hostile to the limitations of modern American art, which tended toward abstraction. Without Gorky, by Cosima Spender, takes us through the family’s pain and tribulations in the aftermath of the Armenian painter’s suicide.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, by Ben Shapiro, explores the influential artist’s haunting, surreal and highly elaborate portraits of suburban life. In The Man Who Invented Himself—Duane Michals, Camille Guichard provides a glimpse into the life of the octogenarian American photographer, visiting the places that influenced his work, including Pittsburgh, New York and the wilds of Vermont. La Nouvelle objectivité allemande, by Stan Neumann, sheds light on the Düsseldorf School, which included some of the 20th century’s most influential photographers. With Le Siècle de Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Assouline depicts the 20th century through the eyes and words of the famous French photographer, with the aid of archival documents, film clips, drawings and photographs. Voyage in Time, by Tung-Yen Chou, is a profile of acrobat-dancer Ming-Cheng Huang, who photographed himself performing handstands at various sites around the world.
SCULPTURE
Kenny Dalsheimer’s Bending Sticks: The Sculpture of Patrick Dougherty celebrates the 25-year career of the world-renowned environmental artist, as he creates site-specific sculptures out of nothing more than saplings. Alain Fleischer’s Brancusi was shot entirely at the Atelier Brancusi in Paris, which the artist left in his will to the French state, along with surprisingly rich amateur footage shot by the artist himself. In Reinhoud, mon sculpteur, Blaise D’Haese films his father, the Flemish sculptor and former member of the Cobra group, during the last two years of his life.
THEATRE
Krzysztof Rzaczynski’s In the Cause of the Spirit follows Polish theatre director Jerzy Jarocki (1929-2012) as he works on his final production: a play based on the epic poems of Juliusz Slowacki, a central figure in Polish romanticism. In the biography Jonathan Miller, David Thompson describes the multiple talents of this British theatre director, author, photographer, sculptor, filmmaker, television host—and trained physician. Suzannah Wander’s Nicholas Hytner portrays the artistic director of the National Theatre in London, who is responsible for such hits as War Horse, One Man, Two Guvnors, History Boys and Miss Saigon. Within a Tempest. The Island, by Laurentiu Damian, outlines the creative process of the acclaimed Romanian stage director, Silviu Purcarete, as he oversees a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
TRIBUTE
Every year, FIFA pays tribute to a producer, director or distributor who has contributed to the development of films on art. For this 31st edition, the work of filmmaker Gerald Fox will be in the spotlight.
Twelve of his films will be screened, including Brazil With Caetano Veloso, which looks at the impact of Brazilian music through the eyes of one of its most illustrious practitioners. In Christian Boltanski, Fox conveys the complexity of the relationship between the individual experience of the French artist and the pivotal moments of history. Claes Oldenburg is a journey into the heart of the world of one of the most famous representatives of American Pop Art of the 1960s. Winner of the Grand Prize at the 16th FIFA, The Fundamental Gilbert and George tells the story of the most eccentric and controversial artists on the contemporary British scene. For Gerhard Richter, Fox met the celebrated German artist at his home in Cologne, as he was preparing to create a new series of paintings. The Grand Prize winner at the 23rd FIFA, Leaving Home Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank provides a window on the life of this legendary photographer and fillmmmaker, known in particular for his films Pull My Daisy, Me and My Brother and the notorious Cocksucker Blues about the Rolling Stones. Life Support—Marc Quinn depicts the enormous frozen garden created in Milan by the contemporary British artist, who accidentally falls into the tank. Marianne Faithfull—A Life in Song follows a concert tour by this notorious, and immensely talented, British singer who first achieved fame at age 17 with the song “As Tears Go By,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
MEDIA ART
In this year’s Experimental FIFA, curator Nicole Gingras has brought together works by Canadian and foreign artists created between 1977 and 2013.
Two programs are devoted to Canadian artist Jan Peacock, winner of the 2012 Governor’s General Prize in Visual and Media Arts. The first program comprises four works from 1977 to 1987, including Sirensong, and the second features six films from 1995 to 2012, including Midnight Reader.
A selection of fifteen films by John Porter, a champion of Super 8 film, will be screened on the four walls of a festival theatre. Incorporating performances by the filmmaker, the event will leave audiences spellbound.
In the Interactions section, Hank Bull will give a talk on the celebrated Chinese landscape Autumn Colours on the Que and Hua Mountains by Zhao Mengfu, while Jan Peacock will discuss Vito Acconci’s The Red Tapes.
Seven films are featured in the Short Films Program, including Stephen Andrews’ Dramatis Personae, which uses cult photos and film sequences to create an experimental art form. In Souffles, Diane Morin animates objects by subjecting them to tiny explosions, which generate light and movement.
WallPaper, The video installation presented by Ed Pien explores the notion of ornamental decoration as a meeting point between East and West, the work’s fanciful floral motif serving to underscore this cultural crossbreeding. Twelve of his videos and filmed performances will also be presented in a work entitled Jouer / Play.
Toronto artist Johannes Zits is presenting Montage, a video program, as well a live performance entitled Monticules de neige/Snow Mounds. Questioning the interaction of the body with its environment, he unhesitatingly uses his own body as an experimental support.
In the Diagonals section, 18 films will be screened. In Giuseppe Bucci’s Aller et retour, a pair of dancers, Giuseppe Bucci and Ambre Pini, enact their last meal together, laden with sighs, confessions and reminiscences. In Monique Moumblow’s Charles a man delivers a monologue in Danish, with simultaneous translation in English typed on an old typewriter, recounting the peculiar behaviour of his teenaged brother. Faire tapisserie, by Benoit Thomassin and Francis Pinard, captures a performance by Roxanne Chamberland; at a ball, an uninvited woman sits by the wall, waiting and waiting… until she gradually fades into the background. In Painted, Duncan McDowall illustrates a man’s tug-of-war with wilderness, while dancer Dorotea Saykaly performs a choreography inside an abandoned building that is gradually being invaded by nature.
FOCUS ON THE 7th ART
In Cinq pattes et trois sabots, Audrey Pernis examines the Soviet-influenced Kazakh film industry, conducting interviews at the Eurasia Film Festival in Almaty, the cultural capital of Kazakhstan. Christian Delage’s De Hollywood à Nuremberg. John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens examines the anti-war films of these celebrated directors. Dickens on Film, by Anthony Wall, attempts to answer the following question: why have Dickens’ novels inspired so many screen adaptations?
Pierre-Paul Puljiz’s Jonas Mekas: I Am Not a Filmmaker is the first documentary dedicated to this champion of independent film, who moved to New York after internment in a Nazi labour camp. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, by Kathy White, focuses on the only novel ever written by Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, a runaway success as both a book and a film. In Sandrine Bonnaire, actrice de sa vie, Juliette Cazanave provides an intimate glimpse of the extraordinary career of a woman who became an actress by chance and a director by choice. Le Sommeil d’or, by Davy Chou, attempts to revive the spirit of Cambodian cinema, which was brutally halted when the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. In The Teen Movie Boom, Clara and Julia Kuperberg examine this quintessentially American film genre, from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to The Social Network (2010). The Witch Hunt Is On, by the same directors, sheds light on a dark period in American history, the Cold War years, when several Hollywood stars were accused of being Communists and forced into exile.
As part of the Il était une fois series, FIFA is presenting 8 films from the collection Un film et son époque: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Last Tango in Paris, Notorious, Lawrence of Arabia, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Rome: Open City and Sailor & Lula.
TIME RECAPTURED
In the Anniversaries section, Philippe Baylaucq pays tribute to Liliane Stewart, the great patroness of the arts and champion of design and the decorative arts, in L’art de donner – Hommage à Liliane Stewart. With The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Revisited, Francis Hanly recounts the story of the controversial film broadcast by the BBC in 1967, whose disjointed script and chaotic psychedelia outraged many viewers. Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, assembled from over 600 hours of video, is the definitive film portrait of the former Beatle. Sonny Rollins—Beyond the Notes, directed by Dick Fontaine, celebrates the 80th birthday of this legendary tenor saxophonist, attended by the likes of Roy Haynes, Jim Hall and Ornette Coleman.
In the Memory section, FIFA is presenting films on three artistic luminaries who died in 2012: jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and writer Gore Vidal. The 50th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe will also be honoured.
The Thema section is presenting several exceptional films from the Leipzig-based production company Accentus. Die Thomaner – Une année avec les choristes de Saint-Thomas, by Paul Smaczny and Günter Atteln, chronicles a year in the life of this legendary boy’s choir. Michael Beyer’s St. Matthew Passion—St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig presents the St. Thomas boys choir in concert, on their 800th anniversary, performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s masterpiece with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Michael Beyer’s Bruckner 5—Claudia Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra captures a performance in the summer of 2011 of Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major, by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Also featured in the Thema section are four symphonies by Gustav Mahler. The Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig under the baton of Riccardo Chailly performs Symphony No. 2, as well as Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado, performs Symphony No. 9. Finally, Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Bavarian Symphony Radio Orchestra in a performance of Symphony No. 7 in E Minor.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Not to be missed is the Special Events series presented by Loto-Québec, beginning on March 5. For complete details on these fascinating encounters, consult the Special Events press release, the Festival schedule, or the FIFA website (www.artfifa.com).
OPENING FILM
A screening of The Fatwa—Salman’s Story by Jill Nicholls on Thursday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will be followed by a cocktail party in the Bronzes Gallery. By invitation only.
AWARDS CEREMONY
Mark Kidel’s Road Movie: A portrait of John Adams, presented on Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will be followed by the Awards Ceremonies and a cocktail party in the Bronzes Gallery. By invitation only.
BENEFIT GALA
The Benefit Gala of the 31st FIFA, to be held on Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will be presided over by two prominent figures from the National Bank of Canada: Caroline Rheault, Associate Vice President, Corporate Banking, Film and Television Groups, and Sylvain Corbeil, Vice President, Corporate Banking and Specialized Groups. Attended by the who’s who of Montreal’s art and business communities, the event will begin with a screening of Jean-Pierre Devillers’ Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium, and will be followed by a cocktail-buffet and silent auction in the Glass Court. Tickets: $250.
3RD INTERNATIONAL MARKET OF FILMS ON ART
The International Market of Films on Art (MIFA), the only one of its kind in the world, is back this year from March 20 to 23, this time at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Presentations, roundtables, pitch sessions, a video library and a much-appreciated appointment service. For further details, consult the Market press release or the FIFA website.
POSTER
Image from Constantin Brancusi’s La muse endormie, from the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
TRAILER
From Jean-Pierre Devillers’ film Edward Hopper and the Blank Canvas.
INVALUABLE PARTNERS
The International Festival of Films on Art would not exist without the collaboration and financial support of its select group of partners. The Festival would like to thank Astral, Loto-Québec, Digital Cut and InterContinental Montréal, as well as Heritage Canada, Telefilm Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, the Secrétariat de la région métropolitaine, the Ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité Sociale, the Festival and Cultural Event Office of the City of Montréal, the Conseil des Arts de Montréal and Tourism Montreal. It would also like to acknowledge its media partners: ARTV, Télé-Québec, TFO, Société Radio-Canada, Journal Métro, Voir and Le Devoir.
VENUES AND BOX OFFICE
FIFA will begin on March 14 at nine sites in downtown Montreal, such as the Grande Bibliothèque de la BANQ, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Centre Phi, Cinémathèque québécoise, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Place des Arts and Concordia University. FIFA will be back this year at the McCord Museum, and will present be for the first time at the Phi Centre.
Tickets are available beginning at noon, February 26, by telephone or in person at the Place des Arts box office: 514-842-2112 / 1-866-842-2112, 175 St. Catherine St. W., as well as on-line at www.artfifa.com. Tickets can also be obtained at the nine sites mentioned above, one hour before screenings.
Regular admission tickets cost $12 or $85 for a book of 8 tickets. A Media Arts Passport for five screenings, indicated in yellow in the program, is available at a cost of $25. Special rates for youth and senior citizens are also available. The entry fee for the Children’s screening is $5 for adults or children.
In addition, VIP tickets are available for $20. These no-reservation festival passes allow direct access to all public screenings, subject to availability. The Ambassador Passport, on sale until March 12 at a cost of $250, includes no-reservation admission to all public screenings, admission to the Opening Ceremonies and Awards Ceremonies, subject to availability, as well as a Festival catalogue and poster. It should be noted that the Art Film Matinées, indicated in beige in the program, are free for VIP members of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. For the first time, FIFA will offer to holders of the Accès Montréal card , a $2 rebate with the purchase of an Adult ticket for the Festival Matinées screenings.
Further information can be obtained on-line at www.artfifa.com; by phone at (514) 874-9972; at the FIFA kiosks beginning February 26 at the Espace culturel George-Émile-Lapalme of Place des Arts; from March 11 to 15 at the EV Building of Concordia University.
ABOUT FIFA
The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion and presentation of the finest productions on art and media art. An eleven-day competitive festival, it is the most important annual event of its kind in the world. FIFA has become a meeting point for artists and artisans from the art and film communities, as well as for art and cinema enthusiasts.
Subscribe to our free newsletter or follow us on our social media: www.artfifa.com
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For more information
Media contact
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- Alain Labonté, Communications
- dyllan@alainlabonte.ca
- 514 523 9922
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Wagners dream
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Ken Howard
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Fashion
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FIFA
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Obomsawin2
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FIFA
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ArtMed
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FIFA
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No ideas but in things
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FIFA
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Ode on a korean urn
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FIFA
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Behind the wall
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FIFA
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Amy Winehouse
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FIFA
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Fatwa Salman story
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FIFA
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Portrait Gerald Fox
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FIFA
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Papier peint
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FIFA
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Public
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OSA
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Soirée bénéfice
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Marc-André Lapierre
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Public Seance Projection
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FIFA
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FIFA
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