“You’re going to be a Mensch, Okay?”
As the Artistic Director of San Diego International Film Festival, Tonya Mantooth does more than just curate the films featured, she starts community-wide conversations.
“Because we all had the downtime if you will, it gave everybody a chance to reflect… I had that time to start to say ‘Where do I want this to go?’ ‘How can we really evolve to making a bigger difference, having a bigger voice and building a bigger presence?’. . . Coming out of Covid there is momentum to do it differently to be able to carve a new path for ourselves,” Tonya said. Read
Through Julius Shulman’s Eyes
Curator Keith York knew renowned photographer Julius Shulman in the early 2000’s. Keith went through his archive, thumbing through hand-written index cards in his home studio office. He was trying to see all that he had photographed of San Diego. Even having spent this personal time with Julius, in his home, Keith York couldn’t confidently tell me much about who Julius, the man, was. Read
Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide
A Tender Portrait of a Colorful and Fantastical Artist
Documentaries about artists tend to air on the moody side. They go through their often tragic upbringing, their rise to fame and their interpersonal dramas. Then they follow either all the way until their death or land on the artist in the present–dour, introspective. There is often a tone of melancholy about the artist not maintaining their superstar moment. And while this recipe, though predictable, can make compelling narratives, “Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide” joyously breaks the mold.
Kenny Scharf was a prominent figure in the East Village art scene in the 1980s. He rose to recognition for his graffiti art and performance art in places like Club 57. His fame was tied to his association with contemporaries Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Scharf ’s childhood in the “plastic, pop and bright” valleys of 1960s Los Angeles informs his style. He cites the movies and television (specifically cartoons) of his formative years to be inspirations and even mentions dreaming in cartoons sometimes. The film has endless footage of how he surrounds himself with his aesthetic; everything from his phone, his car, his television, he has painted or modified in some way. He has a particular fascination with plastic. He collects trash from beaches not because it is an environmentally-conscious thing to do, but because he finds it beautiful and uses the pieces in his sculptures. Read