World Premiere
Short of hanging the painting on your living room wall, Phil Grabsky’s popular Exhibition on Screen series may be the best way to spend quality time with a favourite artist. At least, that’s what it feels like as we’re immersed in the infinitely evocative oils of Edward Hopper, a poet with a paintbrush.
Although Hopper’s work seems straightforward—he’s an American realist after all—it’s also rich in paradox. If he seems to distill a certain sense of the American Century, particularly the urban environment, he also ignores great swathes of it; his cities are lonely places, scarcely populated. He’s a suggestive storyteller (we might think of Raymond Carver or Hemingway) but also a cryptic one, inviting us to fill in the blanks (no wonder he’s always been such a popular artist with filmmakers). As for his own life, he was impatient with attempts to psychoanalyze his work, but as Grabsky discovers, this consummate craftsman owed a great deal to the artist Josephine Nivison, who would become his wife and who sacrificed her own career to manage his.
The film draws on leading experts and curators, Hopper’s diaries and letters, but of course, the best reason to watch it is to bathe in close-ups of superb art.
Q&A Oct 5 & Oct 7
Presented by
Media Partner
UK/USA
2022
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Outrageous!
Two misfits find love and support in this cult classic and landmark for Canadian queer cinema. Determined to retain her freedom after being treated for schizophrenia, Liza grows equally committed to seeing Robin realize his potential as a drag performer.
Vancouver Opera Presents: Moulin Rouge!
Paris has never been gayer than in this headlong karaoke culture crash set in a poptastic 19th century Montmartre, where Ewan McGregor composes The Sound of Music and falls over his heels for Nicole Kidman's courtesan, Satine.
Love & Independence
A program of shorts that introduces daring new voices in Canadian cinema. Personal, playful, provocative, and self-financed, these films offer the freedom to express boldly through practices rooted in filmmaking among friends.
Credits
Executive Producer
Phil Grabsky, Amanda Wilkie
Producer
Michael Cascio, Cynthia Weber Cascio, Phil Grabsky, Amanda Wilkie
Screenwriter
Phil Grabsky
Cinematography
Shane Alcock, Robert Burnett, Joshua Csehak, Phil Grabsky
Editor
Clive Mattock
Original Music
Simon Farmer
Director
Phil Grabsky
Phil Grabsky is a filmmaker who has won multiple awards for his directing, writing, producing, and cinematography. He and his company Seventh Art Productions are behind films such as Muhammad Ali – Through the Eyes of the World (2001), In Search of Beethoven (2009), and The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan (2011).
Grabsky has written four history books including the best-seller The Great Commanders. He has been a judge for the Emmy, BAFTA, Grierson, and One World awards, and has won Best Director and Services to Television awards at the Royal Television Society.
Filmography: In Search of Beethoven (2009); The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan (2011); Exhibition on Screen: Raphael Revealed (2020); My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan (2021)