Andy Warhol: Denied
The 32nd International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) will take place this year from March 20–30.
Yesterday afternoon they announced the full line-up, which includes 270 films from 34 countries, numerous special events, including exhibitions, installations, roundtables and master classes involving guest artists and specialists. In addition, the International Market of Films on Art (MIFA) is back for a fourth year in row.
Here’s what’s in store, in FIFA’s words:
CANADIAN AND QUEBEC FILMS
CINEMA
Serge Giguère’s Le Mystère MacPherson investigates the character of MacPherson, the protagonist of a song by Félix Leclerc and the film of the same name by Martine Chartrand.
COLLECTORS
Les Chercheurs d’art, by Anne-Marie Tougas, portrays four socially committed “art searchers.” Kara Blake’s Derby & Groma uses a discovery made by photography collector Pablo Cruiz Aguirre to present a picture of Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s, demonstrating the value of cultural artefacts in recovering a forgotten past.
COMICS
Denis Blaquière’s documentary BD QC: Michel Rabagliati is a portrait of the cartoonist, exploring his favourite themes, sources of inspiration, techniques and influences. BD QC: Jean-Paul Eid, by the same director, chronicles the career of the cartoon artist and illustrator known for his Aventures de Jérôme Bigras. With BD QC: Thierry Labrosse, Denis Blaquière immerses us in the world of the comic book author, illustrator and painter Thierry Labrosse, who has made a living from his art for over 20 years.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Chercher Ferron, by Natalie Martin, reveals the playful, unifying and singular approach of visual artist Richard Ferron, examining his creative process, revisiting his past works and underscoring the impact the artist has had on people, beyond the works themselves. Jean-Sébastien Ouellet’s L’Art fait du bien demonstrates, through seven unique examples, how the arts can enrich our lives. Patrick O’Connor’s Freights looks at an unusual graffiti subculture, in which graffiti artists from rural or even uninhabited areas are painting on freight cars that run across Canada and down to Mexico. Geneva Guérin’s film Van Horne & Waverly is set primarily in the Twilight Sculpture Garden in Montreal’s Mile End, a district that is home to Canada’s largest artistic community. There we meet three of the neighbourhood’s leading artists: sculptor Glen Lemesurier, musician-performance artist Radwan Moumneh and multimedia artist Rouge Lefebvre.
DANCE
Le Vertige de l’étoile, directed by Éric Côté and Jean-Pierre Dussault, provides a unique opportunity to discover the world of ballet and contemporary dance through the trajectory of one of its most accomplished artists, Canadian Guillaume Côté. In Marie Chouinard – Le Sacre du Printemps, Mario Rouleau celebrates the centenary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with this superb version by choreographer Marie Chouinard, a veritable ode to life and a pivotal work in her repertoire, performed by 14 dancers of her company. Elif Isikozlu’s Two concludes the cycle of Études with an original interpretation of Liszt’s piano transcription of Bach’s Fugue in A minor (BMV 543) by Toronto pianist Njo Kong Kie. In Raymond Saint-Jean’s Une chaise pour un ange, the festival’s opening film, Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen derives inspiration from the culture of the Shakers for the creation of his Borrowed Light.
LITERATURE
Meetings With a Young Poet, by Rudy Barichello, explores the shared destiny of two artists: the celebrated author Samuel Beckett and young poet Paul Susser, who attempt to “say the unsayable.” A study in humanity, poetry and the creative process.
MUSIC
John Bolton’s The Making of Fallujah: A New Chamber Opera explores the first opera about the Iraq war and post-traumatic stress syndrome, which turns the horrifying experience of a survivor into a work of art. For We Are a One Man Band, directors Anne-Charlotte Gellez, Blandine Guézet and Audrey Pernis spoke with 15 one-man or one-woman bands in Montreal in May 2013. On stage or in private, the musicians describe their extremely eclectic artistic paths. See also Harmonielehre, one of the works FIFA is presenting in 360 degrees at SAT.
PAINTING
Les Vies de mon Père: Yvan Ducharme, by Nathalie Ducharme, is a portrait of this passionate actor, comedian, painter and author based on archival documents and interviews. Patrick Lowe’s The Wonderful Worlds of Nak is a surreal odyssey into the mind and art of Robert Pasternak, an eccentric and visionary artist from Winnipeg.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Les États inventés d’Amérique, directed by Alberta Nokes, presents the photomontages of Pierre Guimond, the product of over 18,000 photographs taken during ten years of travels throughout the United States.
SCULPTURE
Jacques Bouffard’s Le Cri d’Armand Vaillancourt looks back at the career of a painter-sculptor who left his mark on the history of Quebec by turning his life into an art. Armand Vaillancourt used creation as a form of expression and socio-political commitment. Sociologist and art critic Guy Durand enriches this portrait with his insights.
THEATRE
With the film Louise Latraverse, libre et moderne, Geneviève Tremblay takes us into the world of this versatile artist. A woman of action and courage, Louise Latraverse has never stopped reinventing herself over her long career, whether in radio, television, theatre, directing or writing.
The New Rijksmuseum 4
INTERNATIONAL SELECTION
ARCHITECTURE
Niels-Christian Bolbrinker’s Fagus—Walter Gropius and the Factory for Modernity looks at the 10-building complex, still operational today, which reflects the beginnings of modern architecture and industrial design. Fascination Gratte-ciel – L’Étoile de Sendling, Munich, by Joachim Haupt and Sabine Pollmeier, retraces the history of this exceptional skyscraper. On March 22, 2012 the new head office of the German automobile club ADAC was inaugurated in Sendling, not far from Munich’s historic centre. The Berlin-based Sauerbruch Hutton, one of Germany’s most innovative architectural firms, designed this 93-metre tower and its star-shaped base, turned towards the Alps. Jean Nouvel and the Tormented Concerthouse, by Jon Adelsten, sheds light on the artistic vision and personality of French architect Jean Nouvel and the compromises he had to make in designing the Danish Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Copenhagen. The result, nonetheless, was striking: a huge translucent blue box shimmering in the night. Marc Jampolsky’s 3-D documentary Le Défi des bâtisseurs – La Cathédrale de Strasbourg combines re-enactments, archival material, computer-generated images, and interviews with historians and specialists. It reveals the construction secrets behind this architectural masterpiece, the lives of its master craftsmen, the social organization of the worksite, its impact throughout Europe, and the political and religious context.
Juliette Garcias’ Le Rolex Learning Center reveals the exceptional characteristics of this wave of concrete and glass, which has inspired numerous metaphors. Built in 2010 by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from the SANAA agency, this weightless mass of over 20,000 square metres has not a single wall. It is made simply of gentle slopes and undulations. MuCEM – Naissance d’un musée, directed by Samuel Lajus, chronicles the creation of the MuCEM, musée de la civilisation méditerranéenne in Marseille. Over a three-year period, the camera captured each phase in the construction of this building designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti. In Naissance d’un musée – Le Louvre-Lens, Alain Fleischer recounts the genesis of the new museum from all angles: geographical, historical, political, museological and architectural. Mathias Frick’s Tadao Ando, l’architecte du vide et de l’infini films the architect in Osaka and Italy, where the Japanese “master of minimalism” expatiates on his designs. The winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize and other prestigious awards, Ando creates serene and spare interiors, a successful synthesis of traditional Japanese design and modernism. The New Rijksmuseum 3, by Oeke Hoogendijk, outlines the complex and fascinating renovation of Holland’s most famous museum, which reopened its doors in April after ten years of renovations. The New Rijksmuseum 4, by the same director, provides an overview of the work done during the years of demolition and restoration, as well as the financial and political debate surrounding the project, which cost 375 million euros (Benefit Evening film). Zaha Hadid: Who Dares Wins, by Lindsey Hanlon and Roger Parsons, is a portrait of this leading deconstructivist. The only woman to receive the Pritzker Price (the Nobel Prize of architecture), Zaha Hadid has constantly challenged the laws of gravity.
ART HISTORY
Jean-Baptiste Péretié’s Allemagne : L’Art et la nation is a scintillating journey through the history of Germany, from the birth of an empire to two World Wars, and its representation in painting. La Joconde a disparu, by Joe Medeiros, recounts the amazing story of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre on August 21, 1911. An unimaginable adventure.
ART MARKETS
The Next Big Thing, by Frank Van Den Engel, looks at the recent power shifts and soaring prices in contemporary art, and the impact on artists, collectors, dealers, museums and the history of art.
ART OF LIVING, JEWELLERY
Guillaume De Ginestel’s Les Maîtres du rêve – Les Joailliers français et suisses presents three leading French and Swiss jewellers: the Maison Chaumet, official jeweller of Napoleon Bonaparte and many crowned heads; the Maison Boucheron, the first jeweller to set up shop in the legendary Place Vendôme; and Chopard, the creator of the iconic Palme d’or for the Cannes Festival since 1997. In Les Maîtres du rêve – Les Joailliers italiens, Eric Ellena takes us into the heart of the creative process of three great Italian jewellery families: Damiani, Bulgari and Buccellati. Saint-Louis. Cristal design, by Jean-Baptiste Mathieu, demonstrates the expertise of several master glassmakers, including Pierre Charpin, Adrien Rovero, Philippine Lemaire, Émilie Colin Garros and Godefroy de Virieu. For his film Thierry Marx : Le Chef et la 5e saveur, Jean Barrat had exclusive daily access to chef Thierry Marx, the gastronomic director of the Mandarin Oriental in Paris. The chef reveals his vision of culinary art, along with the menus of his two restaurants.
COLLECTORS
Megumi Sasaki’s Herb & Dorothy 50×50 follows collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, who have bequeathed their artworks to 50 museums in each of the American states.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Breathing Earth: Susumu Shingu’s Dream, by Thomas Riedelsheimer, recounts the quest of 75-year-old Japanese artist Susumu Shingu to create sculptures set in motion by the forces and fluctuations of nature: wind, water, sun, gravity. Gilles Coudert’s Daniel Buren, Monumenta 2012 shows the mounting of the artist’s exhibition and its human dimension, the project’s relationship with the public, and the program of artistic events it spawned. In Erwin Wurm—The Artist Who Swallowed the World, director Laurin Merz follows the Austrian artist over a four-year period. Wurm first attracted attention with his “One Minute Sculptures,” in which he or his models have surprising dialogues with everyday objects.
Mark Kidel’s Fabienne Verdier, peindre l’instant presents the work of an artist who has established a unique bridge between Eastern and Western cultures. Georg Baselitz, by Evelyn Schels, profiles an eclectic artist who has constantly turned the classical codes of perspective upside down. The camera follows him over a three-year period in Ammersee, Berlin, Imperia and Salzburg during the creation of a monumental sculpture exhibited in New York in 2012. Amei Wallach’s Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here draws an intimate portrait of Soviet life, through decades of utopian dreams and political upheavals, and demonstrates how art and irony can alleviate oppression. Woven Worlds—Claudy Jongstra, by Allard Detiger, profiles Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra, who creates tapestries and large-format textile installations generated by the beauty of nature, her choice of raw materials, and such skills as spinning, carding and weaving.
DANCE
In Europe Endless, directors Ana Cembrero Coca and Jorge Piquer Rodriguez depict a day inside the European Parliament in Brussels and surrounding area. The work and lifestyle of these “Eurocrats” served as inspiration for this dance video featuring several dancers. With La Passion Noureev, Fabrice Herrault has assembled an impressionistic tribute that shows Nuryev in some of his earliest performances through rare archival footage, revealing “Rudi” at the peak of his powers. Sylvie Collier’s To Dance Like a Man, which will be presented at the Awards Ceremony, recounts the true story of César, Angel et Marcos, students at the prestigious — and demanding — National Ballet School of Cuba. The triplets, aged eleven, are the only known trio of identical boy dancers in the world. Equally talented, they all want to be chosen for a production at Havana’s Grand Theatre.
DESIGN
With Alessandro Mendini: The Theatre of Objects, director Christian Angeli profiles architect and designer Alessandro Mendini, among the iconic artists of our time. Everything Must Change—Piet Zwart, by Sherman De Jesus, paints a portrait of one of the 20th century’s greatest typographers. His versatility and influence prompted the Association of Dutch Designers to name him “Designer of the Century” in 2000. Table E1027 d’Eileen Gray, by Danielle Schirman, recalls a key moment in the career of young Irish aristocrat Eileen Gray. After making a name for herself with her luxurious lacquer technique from 1913 onward, she turned to architecture in the early 1920s, designing the E1027 Villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, as well as its interiors, including the celebrated side table also known as E1027. Why a Film About Michele De Lucchi, by Alessio Bozzer, looks back at the career of one the pillars of the Memphis Group.
FASHION
In aka Norman Parkinson Nicola Roberts looks back at the prolific career of a pioneering British fashion photographer, who was also a renowned portraitist and the official photographer of the Royal British family, not to mention an eccentric gentleman farmer. Muriel Edelstein’s La Chemise Polo tells the story of the short-sleeved shirt designed by tennis player René Lacoste. Although its body-hugging cut was considered indecent at the time, Lacoste made it popular on the courts — along with his signature crocodile emblem. René Gruau, l’élégance du dessin, by Adolfo Conti, describes the artistic approach of French-Italian designer René Gruau, who revolutionized fashion illustration. A close associate of Christian Dior, he helped launch the “New Look” in 1947. Nick Watson’s The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women: Erwin Blumenfeld looks at the life of the photographer, artistic director and contributor to Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Life and Cosmopolitan, whose influence on modern fashion photography was colossal.
LITERATURE
With Beat Generation—Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg & William Burroughs, director Xavier Villetard explores the long and deep friendship of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, who gave rise to the literary movement of the Beat Generation. Arnaud Xainte’s Jean Cocteau, je reste avec vous is a biography of Jean Cocteau 50 years after his death, which testifies to his immense artistic legacy and influence on film and the visual arts. In Les Mots comme des pierres – Annie Ernaux écrivain, director Michelle Porte explores the artistic approach of a writer who has been acclaimed as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Tim Niel’s Sincerely, F. Scott Fitzgerald novelist Jay McInerney explores the life and works of the author of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s letters to his publishers, lovers and friends reveal the inner thoughts of a man whose real life was never far from the fiction he wrote. The Day Carl Sandburg Died, by Paul Bonesteel, chronicles the life and work of the famed American poet, novelist, historian, biographer (of Abraham Lincoln in particular) and journalist. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner was also a children’s storyteller, folk song collector and performer, enjoying the kind of fame, fortune and recognition that is rarely afforded a poet today.
MUSIC
Ramón Tort’s A Film About Kids and Music: Sant Andreu Jazz Band takes us into the heart of this orchestra of children aged 6 to 18, led by Joan Chamorro. The group has sold out some of the largest concert halls in Spain, and received guidance from such American jazz greats as Jesse Davis, Terell Stafford and Wycliffe Gordon. In Benjamin Britten—Peace and Conflict, Tony Britten explores the pacifism that was such a powerful influence on the life of the British composer. Throughout his life, Britten would remain faithful to the humanistic values inculcated at the prestigious Gresham’s School in Norfolk. The transcendent music of the War Requiem, a monumental ode to pacifism, accompanies the film’s climax. Colin Davis: The Man and His Music, by Reiner E. Moritz, is a portrait of the British conductor, who passed away of April 14, 2013. One of the greatest interpreters of the music of Berlioz, he is seen here in one of his last public appearances; enriching the portrait are interviews with friends and members of the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was the Principal Conductor from 1995 to 2006.
In Dreaming Chavela, artist Rafael Amargo travels to meet the Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, to give her a letter from poet Federico García Lorca, whom both greatly admire. In this way, he hopes to rekindle the inspirational “flame of the muses.” Jacques Brel, dernière ligne droite aux Marquises, directed by Alain Gordon-Gentil and Laurent Ramamonjiarisoa, presents the “Grand Jacques” in the last years of his life. He said goodbye to his fans for the last time in 1966 at the Olympia, deciding to devote himself to musicals, films and especially his yacht, the Askoy, which would take him to the end of his journey, the Marquesas Islands. In Jimi Hendrix—Hear My Train a Comin’, Bob Smeaton reveals previously unseen footage shot by Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell, as well sequences from the New York Pop Festival at Randall’s Island in 1968 and the Love & Peace Festival on Fehmarn Island, his last concert in 1970. Don Kent’s Kodo – Au cœur des tambours du Japon depicts the stringent training of some twenty young people, for whom the traditional Japanese drums are a passion to which they are prepared to devote their entire lives. To join the company, candidates must undertake a gruelling two-year apprenticeship on Sado Island. In L’Autre Karajan, Eric Schulz provides a moving portrait of a visionary artist, conductor Herbert von Karajan. A quarter century after his death, his recordings of Bruckner, Beethoven and Mahler continue to outsell those of his colleagues. See also Kraftwerk – Pop Art, presented by FIFA at SAT.
In Bruno Monsaingeon’s Maurizio Pollini, de main de maître, the great Italian pianist opens up on camera for the first time. Through this extended interview and concert footage, we learn more about his musical experiences, repertoire and political commitment. In Mercedes Sosa: The Voice of Latin America, director Rodrigo H. Vila plunges us into the world of Mercedes Sosa, who symbolized the revival of socially committed folk music. The Manifiesto del Nuevo Cancionero, on which she collaborated, gave birth to a political and ideological movement that spread from Argentina to Cuba, Ecuador to Brazil, Chile to Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, Mexico and the rest of the world. Celebrating the bicentenary of Giuseppe Verdi, Michel Follin’s Passion Verdi takes us into the world of Italy’s most famous composer, with French soprano Natalie Dessay as guide. Singers Rolando Villazón, Ruggero Raimondi and Roberto Alagna, as well as directors Robert Carsen and Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, express their passion for the legendary composer.
NAÏVE ART
Branko Istvancic’s documentary From Grain to Painting portrays a neglected, marginalized minority in Serbia. The “straw women” are anonymous Croatian artists of Bunjevci ethnicity who live in the independent province of Voivodine.
OPERA
In Cosi Fan Tutte, Hannes Rossacher captures Austrian director Michael Haneke’s staging of Mozart’s opera Cosi Fan Tutte at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In Nika Strizhak’s Dmitri Hvorostovsky: The Music and I the star baritone explains how a young boy from the farthest outreaches of Siberia was able to rise to the summit of musical fame. Interviews with the “lion of the opera” are interwoven with comments from his stage partners and excerpts from operas by Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Rachmaninov and Verdi. The Perfect American, by János Darvas, showcases Philip Glass’s latest opera, which depicts the final months in the life of Walt Disney. First performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid, the opera is adapted from the controversial novel by Peter Stephan Jungk, a fictionalized — and unflattering — biography of the famous animator.
PAINTING AND DRAWING
Georges Braque, autoportrait, by Michael Gaumnitz, sheds light on one of the boldest artists of the 20th century, the founder of Cubism along with Picasso, and reveals the places and works that were dear to him. Randall Wright’s Lucian Freud: Painted Life helps us to better understand this complex artist, among Britain’s greatest ever, who devoted himself to portraiture, especially nude portraiture. He is filmed painting his last work, a portrait of his assistant David Dawson. Picasso, l’inventaire d’une vie, by Hugues Nancy, looks back on the three-year inventory of the works the painter left behind. Nearly 50,000 works were found in his eleven homes: drawings, paintings, sculptures and ceramics, revealing the private life of one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. In The Riviera, A History in Pictures: Painting Paradise, Spike Geilinger follows the footsteps of those artists who were irresistibly drawn to the Côte d’Azur, including Cézanne, Monet, Signac, Cross and Matisse. The Riviera, A History in Pictures: The Golden Era, by the same director, shows how the Riviera became a playground for such 20th-century masters as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, and then entered a brief golden age as hordes of celebrities, artists and millionaires arrived. Valérie Loewensberg’s Tunisie, l’ère d’une révolution culturelle consists of a series of interviews with five groups of artists who have been devoted to the democratization of Tunisian culture since the fall of Ben Ali’s dictatorial regime. See also Escher’s Universe, presented by FIFA in 360 degrees at SAT.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Les Jambes de Saint-Pierre, by Dominique Roland, depicts the life of surrealist photographer Pierre Molinier, whose artistic vision was rooted in fetishism, voyeurism, indecency and provocation. His work, life and death end up merging, becoming one and the same. With Lucien Hervé, photographe malgré lui, Gerrit Messiaen immerses us in the world of Lucien Hervé, born Laszlo Elkán, who is considered one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent photographers. Over the course of his brilliant career, he collaborated with architects Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Oscar Niemeyer. In Photo : Après la photo, Juliette Garcias speculates on the future of photography. On one side are those who want to experiment with the latest technologies (Joan Fontcuberta, Thomas Ruff, Brandon Lattu); on the other are those who want to return to low-tech methods (Daido Moriyama, Rosangela Renno, Michel Campeau). Alain Fleischer’s Une photographie de la maison provides an overview of the Maison européenne de la photographie, which has exhibited works by such photographers as William Klein, Ralph Gibson, Helmut Newton, René Burri, Raymond Depardon, Jim Dine, Sebastiao Salgado, Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Georges Didi-Huberman and Jean Baudrillard. Jill Nicholls’ Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures? relates the fascinating story of the Chicago nanny who took over 150,000 photographs on the streets of New York and Chicago. In 2007, her negatives were discovered in storage lockers and sold without her knowledge two years before her death. Now the Vivian Maeir phenomenon has gone viral, with her works selling for thousands of dollars.
SCULPTURE
In La Nature d’Alphonse Mucha, Katia Chapoutier recalls the story of the famous gilded bronze bust entitled La Nature, which vanished for several decades. It is now the flagship piece of the Fin-de-siècle Museum in Brussels. Tomomi Nagasawa’s Secrets of the British Museum: Ancient Greece Rediscovered calls into question the “whiteness” of classical Greek sculpture and our entrenched cultural perceptions.
TECHNOLOGICAL ART
Google and the World Brain, by Ben Lewis, tells the story of Google’s master plan to scan every book in the world — and of those trying to stop them.
THEATRE
Avec rage et courage – Le Théâtre politique en Europe, directed by Eva Schötteldreier, brings together three leading figures of European theatre: Olivier Py, author, stage director and newly appointed director of the Festival d’Avignon; Karin Beier, director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg; and Simon Stephens, Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. All three are politically engaged, advocates of a political theatre more in touch with the times.
Lucian Freud – Painted Life
TRIBUTE
Every year, FIFA pays homage to a producer, director or distributor who has contributed to the development of films on art. This year, the outstanding producer Alan Yentob, Creative Director at the BBC, is in the spotlight.
Chris Rodley’s film Andy Warhol: Denied attempts to discover how the controversial Andy Warhol Authentication Board goes about deciding which works are genuine. In an attempt to understand the criteria of what art appraiser Peter Falk describes as “one of the art world’s most secret clubs,” Alan Yentob travels to New York to meet those who knew or worked closely with Warhol.
Several other films are featured in this section, including works on David Bowie, Werner Herzog, William Burroughs and Orson Welles. Alan Yentob will also conduct a master class.
MEDIA ART
Experimental FIFA is presenting 56 Canadian films and videos selected by curator Nicole Gingras, including an exhibition by Nova Scotian artist Jan Peacock, winner of the 2012 Governor-General’s Prize for Visual and Media Arts, entitled The the (Things that go in the Horizon.
The Animation category brings together eleven works, six by Julie Doucet. While affirming her interest in animated images, she forges her own unique style, interweaving words and images. Diane Obomsawin also presents her latest work, La Forêt.
The Perceptions category comprises 25 works produced since 2011. These include ten videos by Lamathilde, all of which have a simple elegance and a depth that belies their seeming offhandedness. In addition, Vincent Grenier presents Watercolour, which speculates on the relationship between the earth’s natural environment and manufactured human spaces.
In the Perspectives section, several films are noteworthy, including Les Vagues impostures by Jade Barrette, Sophie Rondeau and Jean-Sébastien Vague. This work explores the norms and clichés underlying the construction and social representation of the sexes. Kim Kielhofner’s Cecilia (Train to Illinois), constructed from personal and public collections, is a moving back-and-forth in memory. Apex, by Nelly-Ève Rajotte, is a deconstruction of the power of the elements of a landscape in search of verticality. In Shikisou, Yota Kobayashi and Barry Doupé present an amazing work revolving around the perception of colours in relation to different sound events tagged with emotional significance.
Breakaway, by Daniel Olson, is a “cheap imitation” of Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs. Olson’s second work, Heisenberg’s Cat, is based on the character of Walter White from the television series Breaking Bad.
Éric Gaucher is making his debut at FIFA with Sing Pedestrian Sing, a short film whose starting point is a fictional title sequence unfolding into an audio-visual rupture between immanent and transcendental ingredients. With Belated Eulogy for My Father, Brian MacDonald is continuing his exploration of images as time machines, allowing the artist to make a final (virtual) goodbye to his father.
À fleur de peau, by Chantal Dupont, depicts the small gestures of everyday life, exploring the theme of growing old together. In Visages, she explores with humour and poetry the transformations of her face caused by various objects held in her mouth.
Richard Martin’s BackBone Vancouver Experimental Cinema 1967-1981 celebrates the video pioneers from Vancouver, an international hub of experimental cinema. Raphaëlle de Groot en performance à Venise, by Frédéric Lavoie, captures the three phases of the performance by Raphaëlle de Groot at the 2013 Venice Biennale, presented by the Galerie de l’UQAM.
Curator Karl-Gilbert Murray’s Identity Constructions, Queer Stories brings together six films by Toronto artist Peter Kingstone, who explores the social construction of masculinity and femininity and the visual representations conveyed in both the media and the arts. In Living in 10 Easy Lessons (2012), he presents portraits of prostitutes, homeless, drug-addicted, delinquent or transgendered women, while his 100 Stories About My Grandmother (2008) presents one hundred accounts by male prostitutes in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Miami and London, asked by the artist to tell a story about their grandmother. Seven of these stories will be presented at FIFA. These two videos belong to the documentary genre: filmed interviews with a marginalized group, giving a voice to those left behind.
Focus Suisse, organized by curator Chantal Molleur, celebrated 50 years of video art in 2013 with 17 titles shown in two media art screenings, representative of the early works of Swiss pioneers. Also on the program are two video installations by Swiss artist Philipp Gasser. The Representative is a new work created specially for FIFA, presented in its world premiere. Coming and Going will be presented in its Canadian premiere at the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme of Place des Arts, from March 5 to 30, 2014.
Pierre Hébert – Lieux et monuments presents 7 works by the artist, a mix of live shooting and digital processing, including John Cage – Halberstadt, which expresses the temporal vertigo caused by the rendering of John Cage’s piece Organ2/ASLSP over a period of 639 years. The images were shot at the 12th note change. The installation Berlin – Le passage du temps, No. 6 in the project, represents a new phase in the artist’s reflection on the idea of animation and instrumental expression.
The Diagonals section is made up of 24 works. Anatomie, by Patrick Bossé, presents the aging bodies of actors Gilles Pelletier and Françoise Graton, which bear witness to a love that is stronger than time, and which engage in a fascinating dialogue on old age and death. In Between Entrance and Exit, by Boris Paval Conen, co-written by Jiří Kylián, a man and a woman meet in a vacant apartment and try to make sense of the time given to the them, between entrance and exit. Petri Ruikka’s Cocoon is an aesthetic exploration of underwater motion in which two dancers alternate between stillness and action. In Perception, by Xavier Curnillon, dancer Simon Courchel improvises in the studio, disappearing and reappearing in the dark to vastly different music by Moby and Kevin McLeod. Carl-Antonyn Dufault’s La répétition presents a choreography by Victor Quijada, which explores the notion that the result is a reflection of the sum of efforts. In Jennifer Alleyn’s La terre nous est étroite writer Nancy Huston and painter Guy Oberson tell a story of war and life, based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwich.
FOCUS ON THE 7th ART
David Teboul’s Bardot, la méprise is a rare and sensitive portrait that reveals all the contradictions of both the woman and the legendary actress. Dans l’œil de Luis Buñuel, by François Lévy-Kuentz, is an intimate portrayal of a towering — and unclassifiable — filmmaker. Buñuel left behind over 30 films, as well as an autobiography and a few interviews, which form the framework of this profile. Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss, by John Das, is a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From Belgium to Slovakia, Gatiss explores classic film locations and talks to the leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.
Il était une fois… La Dolce Vita, by Antoine De Gaudemar, focuses on Fellini’s landmark film, which won the Palme d’or at Cannes in 1960. Bold and risqué, the film met with enormous success upon its release in Italy, creating an equally enormous scandal. Il était une fois… La Règle du jeu, by Anne Kunvari, looks back at the controversy surrounding this exceptional film. Initially ignored and misunderstood, La Règle du jeu is today consistently ranked among the five masterpieces of world cinema. In Il était une fois… Le Ruban blanc, by Vassili Silovic, compelling footage and interviews help to elucidate this complex film and the message it conveys; the winner of the Palme d’or at Cannes in 2009, Michael Haneke’s tenth feature film, Le Ruban blanc, explores the climate of violence in German villages in the early 20th century. Il était une fois… Les Enfants du Paradis, by Julie Bonan, tells the story of what has been called “the best French film of all time.” Begun in the summer of 1943, it was not released until the Liberation of France in 1945, when it became a symbol of national reconciliation.
John Ford at Monument Valley, by Clara and Julia Kuperberg, describes how this location became inextricably linked with director John Ford. Eight of his most famous films were shot in this spectacular setting. Chris Marker’s Mémoires pour Simone, commissioned by the 39th Cannes Film Festival in 1986, languished in oblivion for over thirty years. It combines excerpts from films, television shows and interviews with passages from Simone Signoret’s autobiography. In Pasolini, la passion de Rome, director Alain Bergala reveals Pier Paolo Pasolini’s relationship with Rome, which had a physical, carnal and passionate existence for the filmmaker.
TIME RECAPTURED
ANNIVERSARY
Marking the 50th anniversary of the singer’s death, Philippe Kohly’s Édith Piaf Amoureuse looks back at the tumultuous romantic relationships that inspired her songs.
MEMORY
Andreas Pichler’s L’Affaire Pasolini examines the mysterious murder of the Italian filmmaker and the botched investigation that ensued. To this day, many questions remained unanswered. David Clermont-Béique’s Chant de lumières: Fernand Leduc, un portrait, filmed during a retrospective presented at the Musée du Québec in 1997, profiles the great Quebec painter, who passed away last January. Colville, by Andreas Schultz, provides a glimpse into the private life of the acclaimed Canadian painter of enigmatic and hyperrealist landscapes. Patrice Chéreau : Le Corps au travail, by Stéphane Metge, is a portrait of Patrice Chérea, who has given body and soul to theatre, opera and film. In an interview, he discusses his work and influences. In Roussil ou le curieux destin d’un anarchiste impénitent, Werner Volkmer films the well-known Automatist sculptor Robert Roussil (1925-2013) at his home in Tourettes-sur-Loup in 2002.
SCREENINGS AT THE SOCIÉTÉ DES ARTS TECHNOLOGIQUES (SAT)
A new event at FIFA: from March 25 to 29, two films will be screened in the 360-degree dome at SAT.
Michel D.T. Lam’s Harmonielehre is a visual and musical immersion in American composer John Adams’ work of the same name, performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the direction of Kent Nagano.
In Escher’s Universe, Ernesto Páramo explores the fascinating world of Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, who used the sciences in novel ways to convey his complex cosmological concepts.
The documentary Kraftwerk – Pop Art, by Hannes Rossacher and Simon Witter, featuring the experimental group from Düsseldorf that invented electronic pop music in the 1970s, will be presented on six screens simultaneously and followed by a DJ evening.
OPENING FILM
The screening of Boudewijn Koole’s Off Ground and Raymond St-Jean’s Une chaise pour un ange on Thursday, March 20 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will be followed by a cocktail in the Hall of Bronzes. By invitation only.
AWARDS CEREMONY
The film To Dance Like a Man, by Sylvie Collier, presented on Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m. at the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, will be followed by the Awards Ceremony and a cocktail in the Hall of Bronzes. By invitation only.
BENEFIT EVENING
The Benefit Evening of the 32nd FIFA, presided over by Claude Provencher, architect and co-founder of the legal firm Provencher_Roy, will take place on March 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The event, which will bring together numerous personalities from the arts and business communities, will begin with a screening of Oeke Hoogendijk’s film Le Nouveau Rijksmuseum in the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium, and will be followed by a cocktail buffet and silent auction in the Glass Court. Tickets: $250. Packages are also available.
INTERNATIONAL MARKET OF FILMS ON ART
The 4th International Market of Films on Art (MIFA), an event unlike any other in the world, is back this year from March 26 to 29, this time at InterContinental Montréal Hotel. On the program are presentations, roundtables, pitch sessions, vidéothèque viewings and an appointment service for accredited professionals. This year, MIFA is focusing on networking and training activities. For further details, consult the FIFA website.
For more information about screening times, tickets prices and venues head here.