Herb and Dorothy: 6th Annual Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival Toronto

herb-and-d-at-nga-west-building-vis

By Alison Brown

I had the opportunity to speak with Megumi Sasaki, Director of the film “Herb and Dorothy” that opened the 6th Annual Canadian Art Reel Artist Film Festival at the Art Gallery Of Ontario

This is the story of the Vogels, an ordinary couple of modest means, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history.

How did the opening go last night?

“The opening went well and was packed with more than 300 people. It was such an honour to be the opening film for the festival”

Megumi learned about the Vogels, the quirky little couple this movie is about while covering a Christo and Jeanne-Claude exhibition for Japanese TV. The works in the exhibit came from the collection of Herbert and Dorothy Vogel.

as good as it gets movie

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are famous for their large-scale environmental installations such as Surrounded Islands, Miami Florida 80-83

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/si.shtml

The Vogels collected their first Christo/Jeanne-Claude work, a collage of the 1971 Colorado project “Valley Curtain” in exchange for taking care of their tabby cat.

“We were at the National Gallery and when I was told who the owners of the collection were, Dorothy, a 73-year-old retired librarian, and her husband Herb, an 85-year-old retired postal clerk, and that they had donated the collection and never sold anything I couldn’t believe it.”

“I immediately went to a bookstore and purchased a catalog of their collection. The idea of a modest-income couple with thousands of artworks stashed in their one-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment, it really intrigued me. I thought, is such a thing possible? That’s when I thought about doing a story on them, but I wasn’t sure how I would go about it. Their story stayed in my heart for a while. That was back in February of 2003.”  “A year and a half later, at a function at the Gracie Mansion in New York, I met them in person.” “I was really taken by their presence and energy, they are such a cute adorable couple, not your average people in the art world.” “Right away they were friendly and I told them about my idea and they immediately invited me to their apartment to see their collection.”

Did you at any point think these people might be just obsessive and crazy? Because some of the work is so minimalist and conceptual, it’s hard to believe that they bought into it, and bought so much of it or could even understand it. angel dvd download

“It is crazy, they used intuition to buy the art, and no one thought these works were worth anything and when you see the work in a gallery with the proper framing you can see the works are very beautiful. What makes their collection unique is they buy small drawings and pieces. Only things they could fit into their apartment. Many of these preliminary works create an intimate look into the artist’s mind and expose the process of the work. Not many collectors care about the process they usually have a lot of money and like to buy a huge signature piece and that’s it. One of the artists in the film said that the Vogels have the ability to think like an artist.”

I got the feeling that this was also a love story, is that true?

“This really is a love story. A story of their love affair with artists and each other. Its an underlying tone, a feeling I wanted to put in the film.”

The Vogels visited the National Gallery In Washington DC on their 1962 honeymoon. It’s “where I got my first art lesson,” Dorothy says in the film. They like that the museum doesn’t sell its art and that anyone can see it for free.

This is also a film about access to art isn’t it? It shows you can have the ability to be able to access art no matter what your background.

“That’s true ,I  have no arts background and I was very intimidated at the beginning of this project. I did not know many of the artists I was interviewing and I asked myself, am I able to make this film? can I do this?”

“I made a preliminary trailer and with the help of  Executive Producer Karl Katz,at MUSE Television and Film and PBS, I was able to put the funding together for the documentary.

I really enjoyed watching “Herb and Dorothy”, its interspersed with amazing archival footage. Megumi managed to excavate over 1000 photographs.

Megumi’s next project is a short sequel to “Herb and Dorothy” (Herb and Dorothy 50/50). This is a follow up to the collection. A companion piece to the documentary for educational purpose and will be used as a tool for teachers.      http://www.herbanddorothy.com/about.html

Originally a freelance journalist, Megumi’s first big break came in 1989 covering the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

“This really kicked off my career, I didn’t know at the time how to write or take pictures and my articles were published over 10 weeks in Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s highest-circulation newspaper. So much was going on at that time, I went after the wall came down and traveled through 7 different countries of the former eastern block Interviewing people.”

Megumi has worked variously as anchor, news director, reporter and television-documentary news director and field producer.In 2002, Megumi founded a production company, Fine Line Media, to streamline ongoing commitments to Japanese TV while facilitating her new interest in feature documentary projects. Herb and Dorothy is the first of these.

megumi_sasaki_200

darjeeling limited the dvd

For more information:

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:”Lucida Sans Unicode”; panose-1:2 11 6 2 3 5 4 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-2147480833 14699 0 0 63 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-hyphenate:none; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Lucida Sans Unicode”; mso-font-kerning:.5pt; mso-fareast-language:#00FF;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-parent:””; color:navy; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

http://www.canadianart.ca/microsites/REELARTISTS

download football factory the dvdrip juncture divx download

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

Comment form

All fields marked (*) are required