Episode 1219: Slamdance Film Festival 2023 Part II

Hosted by Jason Godbey

On this episode we bring you part two of our Slamdance Film Festival coverage. Director/Producer team Lawrence Chen and Jonathan Hsu talk about their feature docu-drama, Starring Jerry as Himself ( read our review), and director Alex Rappoport discusses his feature documentary, With Peter Bradley.

With Peter Bradley is a portrait of 82 year old artist Peter Bradley as an abstract painter who came up in an era when there weren’t many Black artists working in the art world. Rapporport interviews Bradley at his home in upstate New York where he has become something of a recluse. Bradley talks about his career., and we see glimpses of his life and his work through archival footage.

Rapport employs a cinema verite style of filmmaking capturing the artist at work as he paints, day in and day out, constantly creating but with no perspective buyers. At the time of the filming, Bradley had been forgotten by the art world, and we can sense some bitterness in him. Although the film is entirely from Bradley’s point of view, he has the perspective that comes with time and distance, and despite his misfortune, he is not without hope.

At its worst, a portrait documentary can come off as propaganda, but Rappoport captures Bradley’s humanity and vulnerability in a very honest way that never seems to be self-aggrandizing. We get the sense Bradley is just talking to a friend the good, the bad, and the ugly about his life. We hear his regret, his resentment toward the art establishment, but yet he still paints everyday hoping one day his paintings will sell again and that the world has not seen the last of Peter Bradley.

As of yet, the distribution status of both films is unknown. Follow us here for updates. You can subscribe on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. To support the podcast and help us bring y ou more content each week, click here.

Originally published at https://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on February 1, 2023.