REEL ARTISTS FILM FESTIVAL 2011

It is that time again!

I was very excited to learn that the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) is hosting the 3rd Annual Reel Artists Film Festival this weekend. And once again, very sad to find out it is on while I am out of town :-(

From their catalogue of films being shown, three jump out as ones I would love to see.

On Thursday, March 24 at 9 pm is Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child. The description reads: though Jean-Michel started out as a graffiti artist, he quickly rose to fame in 1980s New York creating distinctive paintings and befriending icons like Andy Warhol and Deborah Harry. However, trouble soon took hold and he died suddenly at 27. This movie uncovers the mystique of both the artist and the man. To see the trailer click here.

Movie poster

On Saturday, March 26 at 7 pm is Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and Spirits of the Forest. The description reads: Winds of Heaven is an impressionist, luminous exploration of the solitary life of one of Canada's most celebrated and irrepressible painters, Emily Carr. It takes viewers on a lyrical journey into the brooding mystery and beauty of Carr's paintings, and highlights her connections to the First Nations People and the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. To see the trailer click here.

Cedar
1942
Emily Carr

On Sunday, March 27 at 2:30 pm is The Colour of Your Socks: A Year With Pipilotti Rist. The description reads: the movie accompanies the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist around the world, shows her at work in her studio in Zurich as well as at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since she won the Duemila Prize at the Biennale di Venezia in 1997, Pipilotti Rist is an internationally recognized and renowned artist. For the first time, she lets a documentary filmmaker into her world, providing insight into her creative process, the development of projects and the collaboration with her team. Watch the movie trailer by clicking here.

Rist, 1996 installation "Sip My Ocean"

Admission to all films is free.

The movies will be shown in the Stanford Perrott Lecture Hall, ACAD on the SAIT campus. 1407 14 Avenue NW, Calgary.

This posting describes only 3 of the 14 films being shown. There are also workshops happening over the week. Go! Go! Be cultured!!!

For the catalogue of the entire festival click here.

REEL ARTISTS FILM FESTIVAL

I was very excited to learn that the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) is hosting the Reel Artists Film Festival at the end of this month. Very sad to find out it is on while I am out of town :-(

From their catalogue of films being shown, three jump out as ones I would love to see.

The first is on Friday, March 26 at 9:15 PM - Yayoi Kusama: I Love Me. The description reads: Director Takako Matsumoto takes us into the world of Yayoi Kusama, a polka-dot loving artist recognized internationally. This film captures Kusama's creative process as she completes a series of 50 large monotone drawings. As her work develops, one witnesses the essence of her art as it wells up in the conflict between life, death, and love - sometimes quietly and sometimes just the opposite. Her firm self-confidence and dignified spirit allows viewers to enter Kusama's world, where there is never a dull moment.

Kusama
The Galaxy, 1994


On Saturday, March 27 at 4:30 PM - Takao Tanabe: A Work of Art. The description reads: Takao Tanabe has been an important figure in Canadian art for over 60 years, contributing immensely to landscape traditions in contemporary Canadian paintings. Born in British Columbia in 1926, Tanabe studied in Europe, the United States, and Japan. This film chronicles Tanabe's life from internment on Canadian soil during WWII to beginning painting during the early days of abstract expressionism to working through his current practice. Now in his early '80s, Tanabe is direct and articulate, giving the audience a true sense of the man behind a remarkable body of work.

Tanabe
Low Tide, 1989


And on Sunday, March 28 at 2:30 PM - Chuck Close. The description reads: Chuck Close has been best known as a re-inventor of portraiture. As we hear this articulate and affable man discuss his personal journey, we also watch him create a self portrait. Numerous interviews with his subjects - friends, artists, and family who discuss their own work and life in relation to his - make clear how far this artist has transcended categories like realism, process and abstraction. Throughout, the profound influence Chuck close has had on his generation of art becomes undeniable.

Close
self portrait, 1997

Admission to all films is free.

The movies will be shown in the Stanford Perrott Lecture Hall, ACAD on the Sait campus. 1407 14 Avenue NW, Calgary.

This posting describes only 3 of the 13 films being shown. There are also workshops happening over the week. Go! Go! Be cultured!!!

For the catalogue of the entire festival click here.

Cote d'Azur 4 - Antibes

Our home base for this part of our vacation was Antibes and it was a lovely for this purpose - the old town and harbour area would get crowded during the days but the evenings were quiet with most of the tourists gone back to the bigger centres so we had quiet streets and emptier restaurants - this suited us just fine!

Here is the beach


the daily food market (every morning) that became filled with local artists in the afternoons


the harbour, which is one of the largest on the coast so was filled with monster-size yachts (5 storeys with their own helicopter on top) by the stars attending the Cannes Film Festival



and designs, that I was collecting from everywhere we went. Some great iron railings on a church. This was actually right beside the PICASSO museum that was previously mentioned as closed for 2 years and opening the week after we left!!

Cote d'Azur 3 - Nice and Cannes

After driving through Nice a couple of times to get somewhere else, we decided "enough of the traffic!" and to take the train from Antibes to Nice to 'do' the main museums - those were MATISSE and CHAGALL.

From the train station we walked uphill (and uphill) to the Boulevard de Cimiez looking at the lovely old villas along the way. It is a pleasant walk and one can enjoy the silence compared to the bustling city left behind. Situated in a park surrounded by an olive garden, the Musee Matisse has a collection of paintings spanning the length of Henri Matisse's career. The collection of works was left by the artist (and his heirs) to the city of Nice where he lived from 1918 until 1954.

for more information on Matisse and this museum, check out the web site: http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/anglais/index3.html

This is a photo of the exterior of the museum, note that the blue shutters are the actual windows and the rest is trompe l'oeil (French for "trick the eye"), an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in 3D instead of actually being a two-dimensional painting.

We then walked down the street to the Musée du Message Biblique Marc-Chagall (Marc Chagall Museum of Biblical Themes)and although I wasn't the biggest fan of Chagall before walking in the door, I became an instant convert to his style and art. I loved this museum.
Small, intimate, surreal...classic Chagall! This museum's modern architecture is the perfect host to Marc Chagall's large format oil painting. The Musée contains only 17 large canvases, and a few other exhibits so you do not get intimidated by an infinite number of works of art glaring at you from every wall. This is a museum with human proportions.

Twelve of the pieces depict different chapters from the Old Testament. Vibrant and colorful, each painting displays the expressive and emotional style of Chagall. But it was the texture seen in each piece, the intenseness of colour and overlaying layers of images that so entranced me. The benches encouraged you to sit and take in the art from a distance, but the piece itself pulls you closer for further examination.

for more information on Chagall and this museum, check out this web site: http://www.destination360.com/europe/france/chagall-museum.php

Then we took the train south to Cannes and arrived just in time for the first day of the 61st Festival de Cannes - wow, just to be there to experience the excitement and craziness that overtakes this small town that comes alive for the world famous film festival. As an extreme movie buff I loved being able to attend a small part of this - can't wait until September when some of the art films I heard about here finally come to Calgary for our International Film Festival.

The 12 miles of beach become a tent city, one end used by small countries inviting film makers to their part of the world for movie magic; to the other end filled with schmoozing and boozing. The themed parties come complete with bouncers, chandeliers, and some amazing interior decorated decors.



the hotel where celebrities stay and are mobbed by the fans waiting outside

the famous red carpet

a carousel decorated with past movie posters... one of which being Audrey, of course

for more information about the most famous film festival in the world, check out their web site:www.festival-cannes.fr/en/festival

and back in Antibes (where the famous PICASSO museum was closed for repairs for a year and a half and supposed to open a week after we left town!!!) I did love the bathing suit models who say it all about a day on the beach along the French Riviera...