Reel Artists Film Festival
The art world, comprised of a cultural vanguard of eccentric visionaries, is reliably compelling fodder for documentary filmmakers. For evidence, look no further than the Canadian Art Foundation’s Reel Artists Film Festival (February 22–26 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox), now in its ninth installment. Inspired by the recent wave of world-wide protest, this year’s festival focuses on revolutionary artists, and features 20 non-fiction films, as well as a free presentation of Jem Cohen’s Occupy Wall St. Newsreels, which will screen daily in the Lightbox atrium through March 23.
The festival opens with a Canadian premiere presentation of Matthew Akers’ Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present, which takes its title from the pioneering artist’s groundbreaking MoMA retrospective in 2010. Akers aims to bring performance art to new audiences by profiling one of its most renowned and provocative practitioners, exploring the creative process that has informed Abramović’s remarkable 40-year career. Fittingly, both Akers and Abramović will be present for a post-screening Q&A, though the gala event’s $195 asking price may be a little steep for most 99-percenters. If that seems slightly at odds with the festival’s revolutionary theme, there will be a regular price ($12) encore presentation on February 26.
Ritzy opening reception aside, the festival looks to tap into the recent vogue for resistance with a spotlight on artists who challenge societal conventions. Oliviero Toscani: The Rage of Images is a portrait of the controversial photographer who came to prominence in the ’90s as the man behind Benetton’s bracing “anti-advertising” campaigns. HOW ARE YOU revisits the early collaborations of subversive Scandinavian duo Elmgreen and Dragset, as well as the production of their installation The Collectors for the 2009 Venice Biennale. Reel Artists also provides a second opportunity to catch Portrait of Resistance: The Art and Activism of Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, which made its debut at the 2011 Planet in Focus Festival. Roz Owen’s film illuminates the lives and work of Condé and Beveridge, a Toronto-based couple who have campaigned in support of various social justice causes since the 1970s. Condé, Beveridge, and Owen will attend.
Among the festival’s other screenings and events are features on a quintet of contemporary German artists (including acclaimed TIFF 11 selection Gerhardt Richter Painting), two programmes of shorts, and a free filmmaker panel, which will be attended by Roz Owen, Matthew Akers, and Larry Weinstein, director of the 1992 film My War Years: Arnold Schoenberg.
For tickets, passes, and a full Reel Artists schedule, visit the festival’s website.