Documentaries on Art

DOCUMENTARIES ON ART

Art 21
Place & contemporary art
&
REMBRANDT’S
Art & Technique

30th Oct 2010 , Saturday; 5.45 pm
Contemplate Art Gallery
1 Floor Rajshree Ford Buildings,
Avanashi Road
(Opp. Krishnammal College)
http://www.contemplate.co.in
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com

Contemplate: is an initiative that will incubate art events, collaborations with artists and art organizations to mount unique platforms, support workshops to encourage new dialogues and creating forums and opportunities for cultural exposure.

Konangal film society has been active since 2003 in Coimbatore. Apart from screening world cinema, screening of documentaries on art once every month was part of regular screening schedule of Konangal.

This is the second of the series of art documentaries that will be screened once every month jointly by Contemplate and Konangal. These documentaries will cover a broad range of disciplines of Art , from classic , to contemporary .

PART ONE

Art 21
Place & contemporary art

How does contemporary art address the idea of place? How do artists working today reveal and question commonly held assumptions about land, home, and national identity? The Art in the Twenty-First Century documentary “Place” explores these questions.

Richard Serra

The first featured artist in the “Place” hour is Richard Serra. The segment follows Serra as he guides the viewer through several massive installations he has done in New York, San Francisco, and Bilbao, Spain. Having worked with metal for the past forty years, Serra creates sculptures shape and stretch steel like rubber, carving intimate moments out of public spaces. "I was surprised that people who had absolutely no information about sculpture were able to enter into these pieces," says the artist. "The experience for them was fulfilling because, in some sense, it was startling, it was new, because they couldn't locate themselves."

Sally Mann

The documentary shifts to Lexington, Virginia where Sally Mann is working in her studio on a new series of "dog bone" photographs. “What I like about these dog bones is their ambiguity. I mean, I love that aspect of photography, the mendacity of photography. It’s got to have some kind of peculiarity in it or it’s not interesting to me.” The work-ethic of Sally Mann, whose intricate photographic techniques record the historical scars and romanticism of the South, is as she takes photos both in her studio and outdoors. The farm where Mann lives and works becomes a meaningful backdrop as her inspired process of capturing it on film is revealed.

Part 2

REMBRANDT
The Great Master’s
Art & Technique

Rembrandt ( July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is one of the greatest painters and print makers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Konangal had already screened on 18th May 2009, two one hour documentaries – one on Rembrandt by Simon Schama and one on Rembrandt’s masterpiece Night Watch.

We will be showing chapters looking at Rembrandt's work and his painting and etchnique techniques. This is the best part of this documentary . It's a slideshow of his work, showing examples you've seen and others you're unlikely to have seen.

17th Oct 2010; DEPARTURES

Departures
A film by Yojiro Takita
Year: 2008
Country :Japan
Runtime:130 min
Japanese with English subtitles
17th Oct 2010 ; 5.45pm
Perks Mini Theater, Perks school
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

Advised age limit 16 years and above

Departures" is a gentle film about a quiet man in conflict with his world, his father, himself. It is also about death and its rituals. Yet the film manages to be anything but dark; whimsy and sweet irony are laced throughout, a warmhearted blend.

Daigo, it's central character, is a cello player of great dedication but middling talent, a member of a Tokyo orchestra playing to half-filled houses while he dreams big classical dreams. The demons inside Daigo (Masahiro Motoki) are quiet too. They don't so much rage as roughhouse around inside of him.

When the orchestra falls on hard times and Daigo finds himself out of a job, his dreams are the first thing to go. Then the beloved cello, soon after the apartment in the city. Stripped of everything, including his dignity, he finally begins the journey back home with his wife, Mika.

There are powerful themes in "Departures," of failure and lost fathers, but Japanese director Yojiro Takita and screenwriter Kundo Koyama handle them gently too, creating a Minimalist painting of a film that uses the sweeping solitude of the countryside, the steamy intimacy of the public baths and the close quarters of Daigo's home to give us a measure of his moods. Takita is blessed with actors who move lightly, gracefully within this landscape.

Based on the novel Coffinman by Shinmon Aoki, the film offers a moving rumination on the link between the living and the dead along with a fascinating portrait of life in rural Japan and traditions gradually being discarded by the young. It’s also funny as hell in places.

In this film, Kore-eda's "After Life" and of course Kurosawa's great "Ikiru," the Japanese reveal a deep and unsensational acceptance of death. It is not a time for weeping and the gnashing of teeth. It is an observation that a life has been left for the contemplation of the survivors.

Yojiro Takita

Takita's film career stated as assistant director at Hiroshi Mukai's Sushi Productions in 1976 with his directorial debut in 1981 and directing over twenty films. Takita feature film Komikku Zasshi Naka Irani was featured at the New York Film Festival in 1986. His filmography includes The Yen Family, We are not Alone, The Exam and Secret. His special effects fantasy Onmyoji and Onmyoji 2 were box office hits as well as his historical drama When the Last Sword is Drawn. The latest films include Ashura and The Battery.