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
Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story
Twenty-six months, 40,075 kilometres, 34 countries traversed in a wheelchair, and more than $26 million raised for accessibility initiatives… Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story documents the staggering accomplishments of an iconic athlete and activist.
Strong Son
A bodybuilder returns home to care for his ailing father in Ian Bawa's debut feature. A moving exploration of masculinity, filial duty, and the emotional distance between first-generation immigrant parents and their children.
Ceremony
Powerful and evocative, Ceremony follows the disappearance of the ooligan in Bella Coola, revealing a story of cultural survival, environmental stewardship, and the enduring relationship between the Nuxalk Nation and the land.
Short Forum 5: Somewhere Else
If space and time are pure perception, let’s build them differently.
Birds of War
Told through phone videos, voice notes, texts, and news footage, Birds of War documents the love story of Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian activist Abd Alkader Habak as their connection deepens and their communications grow in urgency.
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)