5 Art Documentaries in 5 Days: Day Five by Deirdree Prudence

Herb & Dorothy (2008)

Director: Megumi Sasaki

I love this movie. Just as much the third time as the first.  I chose this doc over others I haven’t seen just to spread the gospel that is Herb & Dorothy.  A quaint & sentimental hit about a librarian & postal worker who met, went to art school, decided others made art better and thus became two of the most prolific art collectors of modern time. 

     Buying multiple pieces at a time from rising artists straight from the lofts themselves, the Vogels bypassed the expensive galleries and began emmassing a collection fit for the Rockefellers, canvassing their entire apartment in New York City, from the walls to the closets to under the bed.

     This is a love story in two: between two people and a couple and their art.  Life (and art) is about love. And this movie gives me hearts for eyes.

5 Art Documentaries in 5 Days: Day Four by Deirdree Prudence

Beautiful Losers (2008)

Directors: Aaron Rose, Joshua Leonard

Where the skateboard scene became the art scene, where a group of friends converged in a New York storefront art space in the ‘90s, Beautiful Losers was beautifully filmed just as mainstream success came to many of the artists & many had gone their separate ways.  With old footage from other documentaries and home movies, amazing interviews & so much art by the likes of Ed Templeton, Barry McGhee, Mike Mills, Margaret Killgaren, Shepard Fairey & my beloved Harmony Korine.

     Like children never grown up, these were the lost boys (& girls), making art for themselves & for each other & they lived for it. From skateboarding and punk rock and graffiti to the cover of Giant Robot and write ups in the biggest art mags on the scene, this doc is cotton candy when you’re stoned.

5 Art Documentaries in 5 Days: Day Three by Deirdree Prudence

Waiting For Hockney (2008)

Director: Julie Checkoway

Oh, Billy Pappas, such a simply sweet man with a dream, such a simpleton. We follow him from the conception of his life’s work, through the process of working on a simple drawing for nearly 10 years, to the aftermath & his simple dream of meeting David Hockney (british artist extraordinaire) & having his idol exalt him into yesterday’s fine art world of expensive portraits,

     This documentary may not be the most inspirational for artists but I fullheartedly recommend it for the realness of Billy’s story, of the heartbreak and obsession that so many artists out there can empathize with. It’s about living out a dream, a lofty dream that you have to kill yourself over to achieve and even then success is the smoky façade of David Hockney’s scowl.

5 Art Documentaries in 5 Days: Day Two by Deirdree Prudence

In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)

Director: Jessica Yu

     Henry Darger died in 1973 & only upon his death did anyone fall into the Realms of the Unreal, the fascinating secret world of an orphan boy turned reclusive janitor.  Stacks and stacks of thousands of pages of writing, journals, an autobiography, a 15, 000 page novel, hundreds of paintings, many of them over 10 feet long and double sided. A self-taught artist who built his mixed media creations out of coloring books and children’s magazines, his Vivian Girls were his life and a fascinating case study into this mysterious artist who’s outsider leanings went on to inspire and shock la nouvelle génération d'enfants de l'extérieur.  

     Bringing his children to life, the war scenes, the butterfly girls with male genitalia, the paintings animated, this film is superb in immersing the viewer into the world of the Vivian Girls and into the mind frame of the strange madness and lovely artist Henry Darger himself. 

5 Art Documentaries in 5 Days: Day One by Deirdree Prudence

D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist (2002)

Director: Michael W. Dean

This documentary starts out with the filmmaker asking the woman on screen, “What’s DIY mean to you?” and the answer that follows is the typical response you’d hear from a documentary called D.I.Y. or Die: “Answer your own damned questions, live your own damned life” and all the anti-corporatist platitudes we as artists need to hear sometimes.

     With interviews from J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, Jim Rose (without his Circus Sideshow), Lydia Lunch to up & comers on the scene, simple questions are responded to with complex, drug addled and poetic answers.  Not that great for a Friday night looking for a fantastic plot, but definitely a film I would suggest keeping near the computer, the paintbrushes, the amp or camera, because we all need a little inspiration sometimes, ‘cause the world is all DIY or die, baby.