Source: Globe and Mail
Toronto -- The third largest gay and lesbian film and video festival in the world, after those in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Inside Out, Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival opened last night and continues its 18th edition over the next 10 days with several new initiatives -- including the well-curated Icon Documentary Series.
The Icon series is a self-contained unit of six excellent films, focused on figures strongly connected to the visual arts. Inside Out director of programming Jason St-Laurent says the series provides a useful niche within the larger event. "Because we're serving such a diverse and large community, it's important to help people navigate through it and provide a context for viewing work," he explains. "As we're watching 600-plus submissions, we notice certain trends or currents."
The cultural icon idea, St-Laurent admits, speaks to his personal taste and background as a curator for galleries. "I like challenging film and video work, and I'm always interested in artist portraits because people rarely get that kind of insight," he says. Derek, Isaac Julien's exquisite film about artist-filmmaker Derek Jarman, interweaves a revealing, previously unseen 1991 interview and a letter written and narrated by friend Tilda Swinton with archival footage. Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff + Robert Mapplethorpe is a straightforward but solid exploration of the relationship between the influential curator and the famous photographer as told by colleagues and such friends as Patti Smith. And With Gilbert & George offers 18 years of director Julien Cole's footage of the British art stars, who have lived and worked together since the swinging sixties.
The Icon series was cemented when St-Laurent secured the Canadian premieres of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, about the underrated musical genius whose work spans the experimental and disco genres, and Patti Smith: Dream of Life. The latter film, which won an award for best cinematography at Sundance 2008, is a multilayered, often poetic collaboration between photographer-director Steven Sebring and punk godmother Smith. Filmed over 11 years, after the death of Smith's husband Fred (Sonic) Smith, the doc mingles casual scenes (backstage banter, jamming with Sam Sheppard, supper with the folks) with black-and-white dream sequences and concert footage. But the Icon series isn't all international: It also includes Annette Mangaard's General Idea: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle, a look back at the renowned artist collective based in Toronto.
Full article: Doc series profiles gay icons, from Arthur Russell to Derek Jarman | Globe and Mail