Hello, fellow film club members!
I’m very excited to present our kick-off films for Craft Film Club this month; I also have nervous butterflies, I hope you dig my selections (or at least don’t loathe them)! Regardless, I hope that they spark some interesting discussion.
My theme, roughly, is about creation, DIY mindset, and on the other side of the equation, the appreciation/support of the arts. Both films also have moments of questioning, “what is art?” (Which I always think is impossible to answer, ultimately being in the eye of the beholder, but I love the discussion it generates.)
My first film selection is Beautiful Losers, a art documentary about street art gone high art, graffiti turned commercial, and the most important theme to me, the irresistible pull to make and follow your own vision. It’s a pretty fast-paced, expletive-riddled, indie culture mash-up of a film. Some of the artists/opinions I hate, most I’m completely in love with. I’ve watched it several times, and end up returning to it whenever I need a reminder why I didn’t become an engineer or follow a “straight” career path. Watching the artists at work was the big highlight for me, any creative will recognize those looks of enchantment and obsession while hands work on a project. This movie, along with Bansky’s Exit Through the Gift Shop, were films I watched that sparked the desire to create film club; to share and discuss some of the ideas floating around in my brain.
My second film is Herb & Dorothy, another art documentary, but this time from the view of the collectors and supporters. I happened across this while on a documentary kick, and 10 minutes in, I was head over heels about the title subjects. Herb & Dorothy Vogel take supporting the arts to an amazing extreme, especially considering their modest blue-collar salaries, and while definitely quite obsessive about minimalist and conceptual art, I found them incredibly likable and compelling. Keep an eye out for the story about Christo’s cat, it made my heart happy. Contrary to Beautiful Losers, this film is incredibly well-behaved (thank PBS for that), and admittedly a bit slow here and there, compared to the frenzied pace and Tarantino-esque vocabulary of BL, but the Vogels lit up the screen for me.
I’ll save further reviews and commentary for later this month, but welcome any comments in the meantime, either below or through twitter!
Watch the films at your leisure, make an inspired little project if you feel the pull, and look for further group discussion in late February.
Where to find the films:
Beautiful Losers: netflix & website
Herb & Dorothy: netflix & website
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