Vision TV premieres a really interesting series this week. On Wednesday March 11 at 10pm, Driven By Vision enters its second season after a name change (the first season was entitled Shrines and Homemade Holy Places). Through seven half-hour episodes, we visit a number of unique art sites created by visionary (or some might just say eccentric) creators, many of whom seem inspired by their sense of connection with the divine. The show was created by Toronto-based Markham Street Films, and written and directed by Michael McNamara. The nine original episodes will air in the same timeslot beginning in May 2009.
A ringing endorsement from documentary legend Albert Maysles doesn’t hurt either:
This is exactly what we should be seeing on television…a message of hope through beauty in the subject matter and in the filmmaking.
What caught my attention about this was its similarity to a web series called American Dreamers that I wrote about a few months ago. It seems that this kind of “outsider art” architecture has captured the imagination of a lot of people, or at least a lot of documentarians. After watching it, though, I think this will interest almost anyone with an interest in building things or discovering interesting characters. It’s beautifully shot, and brings the viewer face to face with many works which will never appear in their local art museums.
In the first episode, we meet two loners who have devoted their lives to their individual art projects. Jim Bishop has spent the past few decades dedicated to building his very own castle in rural Colorado. Bishop’s Castle is indeed awe-inspiring, but this episode shows the darker side of the affable builder and tour guide and investigates some of the pain behind his obsession. We also meet the utterly charming M.T. Liggett, who has annoyed every one of his 250 neighbours in Mullinville, Kansas by immortalizing them in scrap metal sculptures. Using his art to work out his political and religious opinions, and even to memorialize past loves, he has caused controversy by planting his pieces along the sides of the highway on his property. What Liggett considers his open air gallery, the townspeople consider an eyesore, but it doesn’t seem to bother the 76-year-old Liggett in the least.
If the first episode is any indication, I’m very much looking forward to meeting the rest of this colourful cast of characters.
P.S. According to the Facebook fan page, the series is running on Ovation TV in the US.
Tagged as:
art,
faith,
spirituality
Editor’s Note:
Doc Soup is a monthly documentary screening programme run by the good folks at
Hot Docs. It gives audiences in Toronto (and now Calgary and Vancouver!) their regular doc fix each year from the fall through to the spring, leading up to the Hot Docs festival itself.
Guest of Cindy Sherman (Directors: Paul H-O and Tom Donahue): Paul Hasegawa-Overacker is a surfer and sometime artist who started a public access television show in the early 90s called Gallery Beat. It was an irreverent look at the New York art scene and although he achieved some local notoriety, mainstream success was not really in the cards. But then in 2000, he met and managed to interview notoriously media-shy photographer Cindy Sherman, and not only did it give Gallery Beat a boost but it led to a five-year-long romantic relationship. The problem was that the show was already winding down. The New York art scene was becoming more “corporate” in the 2000s and galleries were less likely to allow scrappy shows like Gallery Beat access to film their openings and other events, especially if they were going to be portrayed in a bad light. After Paul gives up the show, he begins working on other ideas, but is essentially living at Sherman’s house as a “kept man.” This begins to bother him, especially after an infamous event he describes where he was seated several tables away from Sherman at an event with his name card labelled only “Guest of Cindy Sherman.”
The film is essentially a collection of home movies, with footage from old Gallery Beat episodes woven in, and a few more recent interviews likely conducted by co-director Donahue. Sherman, who gave her initial approval to the project when her and Paul were together, has distanced herself from the finished product. I can understand why. Hasegawa-Overacker (or H-O as he prefers) is a slightly obnoxious attention-seeker and the film seems to be his attempt to deal with a seriously bruised ego. Despite the inclusion of a few others who suffer from what he calls “famous girlfriend syndrome,” it’s clear to me that his film is just another attempt to recapture the spotlight, and it’s even sadder that he still has to define himself against his famous now-ex girlfriend. I wonder if Sherman, who generally comes across as a private but generally decent person, took the project as a provocation, and whether it had anything to do with their eventual breakup. H-O isn’t a monster, but he just seems to have a strange sense of entitlement that got under my skin as the film progressed.
While Guest of Cindy Sherman offers an interesting glimpse of the sometimes incestuous world of modern art, and H-O seems like someone I could at least sit down and have a beer with, I still found the end result to be slightly icky.
Guest of Cindy Sherman screens on Wednesday March 11th at the Bloor Cinema. Screenings are at 6:30pm and 9:15pm
Official site of the film
Clips from the film
(7/10)
Tagged as:
art,
celebrity,
nyc
