Radical Acts | Late Style (working title)

TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Development

LOGLINE

Vivid exploration of late-career creativity: painters, poets, musicians, filmmakers. How does a lifetime of experience, thought and experimentation inspire directions taken by older artists?

SYNOPSIS

Throughout history artists have done fascinating work late in life: work their younger selves could never have imagined. Poems, paintings, sculptures, novels, films – each born of wisdom gained throughout a lifetime of daily work. This film will look at Late Style, and the profound collaboration between creativity and time.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

As a documentary filmmaker, I pursue my films as a way of discovering, understanding and giving voice to unfamiliar corners of the world that I see or sense. I’m drawn to non-narrative work around subjects that are often uncontemplated or outside typical categories, however rich in ideas and metaphor. I feel naturally drawn to find comparisons and connections between the unseen and the universal, using the small and the quotidian as a bridge to tell a universal story. The undertaking of the film itself becomes the pursuit of its central fascination. Using the power of cinema to connect and captivate people, as well as all the tools of digital editing, this film will bring to life the works and personalities of its artists. We’ll take rich audio journeys into musical moments and voices of the past, examine close details on paintings and sculptures, approach digital typesetting of poetry as playfully as Godard’s titling, explore the ways architecture can be experienced cinematically, create vast montages of artists' work that speaks to the ever-quickening passage of time. In contrasting stillness, the film will also present carefully created portraits of these artists and their vital processes: the intimacy, the missteps, the discoveries, the hours spent thinking, the time that produces the work. What does the idea of Late Style mean to them? Personal conversations in artist studios, workshops, museums, libraries will situate the film in locations where the work is done. An interrotron setup or Eye-Direct will be used for eye contact in the artist interviews. The sights, sounds, rhythms and silences of the creative process will be intricately captured. The interiority and subjectivity of the artists will be explored in editing styles that translate cinematically each artist’s deep personal and creative experience; put together, alluding to the grand nature of centuries of extraordinary artists. The ideas behind this film project fascinate me endlessly, and have for as long as i can remember: creativity, process, time, identity, the outsider voice of the artist, relationships with our younger selves. The research to date has been rich, joyful and inspiring. And the prospect of engaging in dialogue with global artists about their creative practices feels both central to my creative interests and like a passing of essential knowledge.

KEY CREW

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