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The Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists and Film @ International House present
Found in the Making:
Films about Self-Taught Artists
The "Found in the Making" film series returns to International House and features a wide selection of films that address the definitions and interpretations of self-taught art.
Conformity is often prized over eccentricity in our society. What kind of bravery does it take to believe in your own ideas and intentions and shut everything else out? We believe imagination should be rewarded. Join us for film screenings and stay after for discussions about a group of visual artists whose evocative work expands our thinking, challenges our perceptions, and stirs our passions.
All the film screenings are in the Ibrahim Theater at International House, 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Tickets available in advance at TICKETWEB.
Tuesday, January 5, 7:00pm
Between Madness and Art: The Prinzhorn Collection
Directed by Christian Beetz, 2008, 75 minutes
What is the link between psychological states and the creative process? Is there a relationship between psychosis and the artistic impulse? What can artworks produced by mental patients tell us about artistic genius? Between Madness and Art examines these issues through the story of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German student of psychiatry and art history. As Director of the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic in the 1920s, he was fascinated by the beauty and expressiveness of the drawings, paintings, and sculptures of his schizophrenic patients. He began to study and preserve this art, eventually writing a seminal study, Artistry of the Mentally Ill, and by the time of his death had organized the largest collection of its type in the world.
After Prinzhorn's death, the Nazis displayed some of his patients' works for their 1937 exhibition of "degenerate art." Forgotten for many years, the Prinzhorn Collection was rediscovered in 1963, toured Europe, Asia, and the U.S., and has led to a reevaluation of what today is known as "outsider art." The film tells this remarkable story through archival footage, profiles of Prinzhorn's patient-artists, footage of their artworks, and interviews with psychotherapists, doctors, artists, curators, two contemporary outpatient artists and the collection's current director.
David Sachs, M.D. will introduce the film and give a brief talk about the relationship between psychosis and the creative impulse after the screening. Dr. Sachs is a Training and Supervisory Psychoanalyst at the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalysis, and was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (emiritus) at Hahnemann University Medical School. He has spent more than 40 years teaching, writing, and treating patients.
 POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER
Rescheduled to Wednesday, MAY 12, 7:00PM
Purvis of Overtown
Directed by David Raccuglia and Shaun Conrad, 2006, 67 minutes, executive prods. Lynda Cass, David Raccuglia, and Matt Arnett, Unrated (some adult language and content)
After serving a prison sentence for breaking and entering, Purvis Young returned to Overtown, the Miami neighborhood of his youth. During his incarceration he had taught himself to paint, and in Overtown he began to chronicle almost obsessively its history and multicultural flavor, its streets and characters, its anecdotes of daily life, and its mythologies of survival. He soon transformed a rundown street, referred to as Goodbread Alley by locals, into an outdoor museum filled with his paintings. Over the last forty years, Purvis Young has become a nationally acclaimed artist whose impassioned style and keen eye are inseparable from his sense of place. Screened at over twenty film festivals including the New York and Miami International Film Festivals, this award-winning documentary offers a rare glimpse into the life and work of a master painter.
Filmmaker David Raccuglia and producer Matt Arnett will introduce the film and lead a Q&A after the screening.
Tuesday, March 9, 7:00pm
Mr. Patterns
Directed by Catriona McKenzie, 2004, 55 minutes
Mr. Patterns tells the story of art teacher Geoff Bardon who was sent to the government settlement at Papunya in Australia's Western Desert, where he found more than a thousand Aboriginal people living in a state of dislocation, their culture being systematically wiped out through “assimilation.” He encouraged the people to paint their traditional “dot” designs using western materials rather than copying European imagery, and became increasingly involved with tribal elders whose designs told stories of their ancestral Dreamings. In defiance of white authorities, Bardon also encouraged the artists to value their work commercially as well as spiritually, believing that by selling paintings the people could become independent while bringing indigenous art to the attention of the wider community.
By the time Bardon left Papunya in mid-1972, the Painting Men had formed their own company and the revolutionary Western Desert art movement had begun. For Bardon, the personal cost was enormous, finding himself at the center of a vitriolic character assassination engineered by the white population who thought the aborigines should be kept in their place. Using archival footage shot by Bardon himself, the filmmakers present a compelling story of personal and political drama. Mr. Patterns is a journey into the heart of an aboriginal commune and an exposé of racial division in modern Australia.
Independent curator Jacqueline van Rhyn will introduce the film and discuss other art programs that have brought artmaking to Australian indigenous communities and their success stories. From 2000 to 2007, van Rhyn was the Curator of Prints and Photographs at The Print Center in Philadelphia. Since 2006, she has specialized in Australian contemporary art, in particular the printed image.
  Tuesday, April 6, 7:00pm
Double Vision: Grandma Moses + Sonabai
Grandma Moses
Directed by Jerome Hill, 1950, 22 minutes
Anna Mary Robertson Moses (known as Grandma Moses) started painting when she was in her 70s, capturing scenes of rural celebrations and daily life in upstate New York, where she lived most of her life. Grandma Moses is one of the most important self-taught artists of the 20th century. However, unlike John Kane, Horace Pippin, Morris Hirshfield and other such artists of her generation, she achieved a celebrity that far transcended the normal boundaries of the folk art field. In the immediate post-WW II years, Moses was one of the most successful and famous artists in America. Featured on radio, television, and in mass-market publications, she was arguably the first artist to become a media superstar.
In honor of her 90th birthday, Jerome Hill released a documentary/art film which follows Grandma Moses through the seasons as a metaphor for the stages of her long life. The heir to a great American railroad fortune, Hill was often unfairly dismissed as a millionaire who dabbled in filmmaking. But his Academy-Award nominated Grandma Moses was hailed in its day as one of the most beautiful color films about art and artists ever made.
SONABAI: Another Way of Seeing
Directed by David Berez and Jeffrey Wolf, prod. Stephen Huyler, 2009, 29 minutes
For 15 years, Sonabai Rajawar lived in total isolation in her central Indian village. Desperate loneliness drove her to populate the inside of her home with extraordinary sculptures. Decades later, although Sonabai was illiterate and untrained, she received national and international attention and the highest awards India can bestow on an artist. Her unusual vision engendered an entire style of art with many contemporary elements, and has served as the agent of significant social and economic improvement in her region. Sonabai's story echoes the urgent need of humanity to express itself creatively. In the words of cultural anthropologist Stephen Huyler, "Sonabai drew her inspiration from deep within her soul and she has never sought recognition. The sole purpose of her art was to bring solace and to balance the inequities that framed her existence." Winner of the 2009 Santa Fe Film Festival's Best Short Documentary award, Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing reveals one woman's creative vision in the face of oppressive adversity.
Stephen Huyler, art historian, cultural anthropologist, photographer, and author, will introduce the films and offer a Q&A following the screenings.
FOUNDATION MISSION
The Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists is dedicated to the production, acquisition, promotion, and distribution of documentary films—supported by a dynamic website—to educate and inspire our growing audience of diverse communities.
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