The summer documentary film season is upon us. What is striking is the focus once again on the interplay between Fine Art and Film Making. Over at HBO, society keeps taking it’s “lead” from Sheila Neivens and crew. They have launched “The Artist is Present,” featuring the “grandmother” of performance fine art, Marina Abramovic. She has brought patrons to tears simply through a stoic glance. The film will likely raise awareness of what “Performance” means to the arts.
On the lighter side of this female billing is the film work of photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders in “About Face – The Supermodels: Then and Now.” This doc, previewed at Sundance 2012, lends a classic perspective to society’s constant challenge between physical appearance and the business of beauty. Greenfield-Sanders views should be interesting as his XXX-30 Porn Star Portraits was a tasteful photographic exploration into beauty’s trashier cousin. His work has ranged from Oval office sittings to Christie Brinkley and Jenna Jamison. As HBO knows too well, sex sells and this summer is likely to be another gold mine, balanced with tasteful exposes on the limits of what is defined as “Fine Art.”
