The 10th anniversary of the Reel Artists Film Festival, which took place from February 20 to 24, 2013, presented a selection of international feature-length and short documentaries at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox. All the films selected address challenges and questions raised by artists both in front of and behind the camera. The festival also featured live conversations with several of the artists and personalities either presented in or behind the films.
We began our anniversary year on February 20 by revisiting the legendary New York art collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel in a special excerpted version of Megumi Sasaki’s new film HERB & DOROTHY 50X50. The screening was followed by a live conversation with Dorothy Vogel, Megumi Sasaki and Toronto collector Bill Clarke.
Next in the program on February 21 was the Canadian premiere of Jef Cornelis’s Documenta 5 from 1972, a film essay covering a seminal event in contemporary art history that gave new perspective on the idea of exhibition as spectacle.
A Skype conversation between Palestinian artist, curator and critic Khaled Hourani and Art Gallery of Ontario executive director of curatorial affairs Elizabeth Smith was a highlight of the next screening. Hourani, who is also arts director at the International Academy of Art Palestine, is producer of the film Picasso in Palestine, which documents Hourani’s attempt to exhibit Picasso’s Buste de Femme in Ramallah in June 2011. Picasso in Palestine showed at Documenta 13 in summer 2012, and it had its North American premiere at RAFF.
On February 22, RAFF featured three films: Valérie Blass: It Has to Stand on Its Own; Chaorismatic—David Altmejd, Sculptor; and Damien Hirst: Thoughts, Work, Life.
The following day, Mexico City artist Mario Garcia Torres arrived at TIFF Bell Lightbox to discuss the Canadian premiere of his film Tea with Toronto artist Luis Jacob. Tea, which debuted at Documenta 13, is a poetic documentation Torres’s journey to the legendary One Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, run by Italian conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti in the 1970s.
Other screenings on February 23 included Dan Perjovschi: Solo in Rome, which captures the working process of the Romanian artist during the execution of his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome; Eric Fischl: The Process of Painting; Black Drop; Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima); Somewhere to Disappear; and Mark Lombardi: Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy.
This final day of the festival wrapped with several live conversations. New York artist Mickalene Thomas chatted with Feminist Art Gallery director/curator Deirdre Logue about the Canadian premiere of her film Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman, which also screened with Beginnings: Mickalene Thomas. UK-based filmmaker Susan Doyon talked with Canadian Art Foundation executive director Ann Webb about her work producing short artist documentaries for Tate Modern and Tate Media. And Grant Hamilton, director of Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film, engaged in a Q&A with audience members after the Canadian premiere of his film.
The Reel Artists Film Festival is North America’s only film festival exclusively devoted to documentaries on visual art and artists. It is produced by the Canadian Art Foundation.
To view photos from RAFF 2013, please visit our Facebook album.
To enjoy the live RAFF conversations and view related coverage on our website, please click on the links below.
Video: Dorothy Vogel, Megumi Sasaki And Bill Clarke In Conversation At RAFF Opening Night 2013
Article: Dorothy Vogel on Herb’s Legacy, 50X50 & New Collector Tips
Video: Khaled Hourani Discusses Picasso in Palestine at RAFF 2013
Article: Khaled Hourani on Picasso in Palestine’s Canadian Debut
Video: Mario Garcia Torres Talks Tea with Luis Jacob at RAFF 2013
Video: Tate Media’s Susan Doyon Reveals Her Art-Doc Musts at RAFF 2013
Video: Mickalene Thomas on Portraiture, Family Secrets & More at RAFF 2013
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