All posts by Kenna

About Kenna

Kenna McHugh is an established freelance writer living in California. Her writing credits include the published book, BREAKING INTO FILM, Film Production book for inner-city kids, three screenplays, seven produced plays and hundreds of how-to videos on the Internet. "I love the challenge of writing because the end does satisfy the means. The writer is a valuable being. If the words aren't there the message isn't received. It is as simple as that. Give me a circumstance, a theme and away I go at my keyboard."

“Woman of War” Humorous Fight Against Climate Change

action, drama, movies, review, suspense, thriller

Written and directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, Woman of War follows Halla, played by Halldóra Geirharðsdótti, who seems mild-mannered and friendly to her neighbors. On the contrary, she is a vigilante against the aluminum industry. At night, she crusades to destroy the polluters and causes of climate change.

The newspapers report the vandalism calling her plight as “The Woman of the Mountain.” Halla is scathing mad using a vicious, yet effective, tirade against the Iceland aluminum industry. Her campaign keeps her functioning “normal” but jeopardizes her dream.

A dream of becoming a mother to an orphaned girl from Ukraine, Halla ups the ante, becoming more daring with her antics to stop the aluminum company. She finds herself fighting against time as she questions whether her second life as a notorious eco-terrorist is worth the sacrifice of her impending motherhood.

Filmed with the vivid backdrop of hills in Reykjavik, Iceland, the movie marks another collaboration with Erlingsson and Geirharðsdótti’s long working relationship. I admire Erlingsson’s ability to infuse drama and comedy while Geirharðsdótti’s knack for subtle points of humor drew me into the story. Her vicious tenacity and heart could have gone overboard but pulled back just in time with the introduction of fabled motherhood and discovering what it signifies to be a hero.

Geirharðsdótti carries the story of Halla, a 50-year-old independent woman with a quiet routine, though she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. The humor is subtle but effective as the drama builds, and she becomes bolder and bolder from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage. She triumphs pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter in her region.

The story shifts when Halla receives an unexpected letter confirming the adoption of a child. A little girl who waits for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and savior of the Highlands to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deliver the aluminum industry a crippling blow.

The final attack is suspenseful because “What if she gets caught?” Her goal to be a mother is no longer achievable. All her efforts are in vain, yet her crusade is for the children like her adopted daughter—securing a livable planet for the generations to come.

Watching the movie until the end is worth it, though there are subtitles. DVDs are available in the States with streaming available on the usual outlets.

“The Gospel According to Andre” Defies Fashion Boundaries

documentary, true story, ,

Directed by Kate Novack, the documentary The Gospel According to Andre is about Andre Leon Talley life. A fixture in the world of fashion for so long, it’s difficult to imagine a time when he wasn’t defining the boundaries of great style.

I found the movie as an intimate portrait that took me on an emotional journey from Andre’s roots growing up in the segregated Jim Crow South to become one of the most influential fashion and trend curators of our times.

Novack’s movie is fascinating as she explores between the elegance of André’s beloved grandmother and the Black Church of his youth and his work at publications like Women’s Wear Daily, W, and Vogue. The documentary shares a wealth of archival footage from moments in fashion history while noting André’s life and career.

Novack’s grandfather was in the dress business, and she visited his factory in Lowell, Massachusetts. “So, fashion was kind of in my DNA. I’d seen Andre in so many fashion documentaries—I think that my last count was fourteen. And he wasn’t just in them. He had these scene-stealing roles. But they always had the feel of a performance.”

“Andre talks about a hymn that he always loved in church, that still brings him to tears, called ‘Precious Memories.’ I listened to that song, and it was so moving. It’s about the way that memory can act as a sustaining force. That was really the entry point and the vision, and that song now plays a prominent role in the film.”

The Gospel According to Andre is Novack’s first attempt at solo directing. “It just felt like the right story at the right moment. It felt like a moment where the story of this African American man—because, in many ways, I view the movie as being as much about one African American man’s experience in America as it is about fashion—was important and urgent. There’s a line from Eboni at the beginning of the movie about how Andre is a legend in mainstream culture, and he’s also a tall Black man in America from the American South and that there would always be great tension there. That really became an organizing principle in the film.”

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Dustin Pittman/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock (6905689a) Paloma Picasso and Rafael Lopez-Sanchez talk to Andre Leon Talley in the front row during a benefit runway show of Chloe by Karl Lagerfeld for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, held at Christies. Chloe Benefit Fashion Show at Christies, New York

Andre saw the movie, and his first impression was elation, being with friends and viewing images. “Kate threaded the narratives through the sophisticated research she had done. Her research is phenomenal! She had gone back and researched, contextually, my life story from its humble beginnings all the way to Brown, my theses and reviews from when I went to Paris and the great shows of Yves Saint Laurent in 1978.”

Andre explains how it “was an enchantment, but, at the same time, an experience that I would consider—I’m not a vain person—microscopic.”

Mandatory Credit: Photo by John Bright/Penske Media/REX/Shutterstock (6906729e) Singer and actress Diana Ross in a full ruffled skirt dancing with Andre Leon Talley at a New Year’s Eve party at Studio 54 in New York New Year’s Eve at Studio 54, New York

“A documentary is meant to be truthful, and it is Kate’s story, it is definitely her story, but, being so creative in my life, and an editor, I would have, in hindsight, made a contract to have a full make-up artist on hand at all times. Having come from the world of Vogue, part of the armor is that you are professionally groomed and, on a cold, bitter morning in North Carolina, that was just me coming out and I… would have had a makeup artist.”

Despite showing Andre without makeup meant he is who he is. “I opened my heart, and I opened my life, and I opened my home, and I opened my history and opened all my friends. The people that are in the doc are the people that are of great value to my life.”

“Tickle” an Uncanny Documentary

documentary

Co-directed by David Farrier and Dylan Reeves, the documentary Tickled formulated when Farrier stumbled upon a bizarre “competitive endurance tickling” video online. He saw young men paid to be tied up and tickled.

As a reporter, Farrier reached out and requested a story about the company. He receives a staggering replay where he is mocked about his sexual orientation and threatened extreme legal action if he digs any deeper into the company.

Unlike most journalists, he decides not to confront the issue, circumvents, and travels to the hidden tickling facilities in Los Angeles. There he uncovers a vast empire, known for harassing and harming the lives of those who protest their involvement in these films.

© 2015 A Ticklish Tale Limited

The more he investigates, the stranger it gets. He discovers secret identities and criminal activity. It becomes an obsession for him where he must discover the truth, despite increasingly malevolent threats and warnings.

Keeping with the humor of the situation and determination, Farrier and co-director Reeve gather all the resources available to get to the bottom of this tickling instances.

Recently, Farrier shared his story, “It started as most stories start: A friend emailed me a link to something interesting on the Internet. In this case: Competitive Endurance Tickling. It was strange from the outset, but as I began talking with the organizers, things rapidly spiraled out of control. A whole new world opened up in front of me – a world of tickling and laughter, but also lawsuits and danger.”

Farrier came under attack including private investigators and lawyers in New Zealand and the United States. “I soon came to realize this wasn’t just a story about tickling: It was about power and control.”

© 2015 A Ticklish Tale Limited

On his journey to uncover the truth, “I met characters I could hardly believe were real.”

Farrier refers to the cheerful professional who tickles others as a full-time job, the obsessed journalist who dedicated years of his life to uncovering the truth, and the young athlete who had his life derailed by a force he never saw coming. “Like me, these individuals all stumbled into the world of tickling with a slight naivety, but came to understand its complexity first-hand.”

Co-director Reeve tells his story of why he became involved in the documentary. He describes how he first saw David’s strange interaction with Jane O’Brien Media on Facebook. “My attention was grabbed. It was an unbelievable response to a very tame interview request, and clearly, something just wasn’t right.”

Reeve is referring to online bullying. “As we started to see evidence of the campaigns of harassment and abuse, I felt that we had no choice but to expose what was happening.”

© 2015 A Ticklish Tale Limited

They used the power of storytelling as the weapon to go against the bullying. “It was something I felt strongly that we had to do, whatever the consequences may be. Although at that stage I still had no idea what would come,” explains Reeve.

“The twists and turns we uncovered in chasing the story were at times exciting, alarming, surprising, scary and hilarious. We never quite knew what was real and what was fake. Were we being played? Was that car following us? Did Jane know where we were? Were we going to end up in court? We never quite knew what was around the corner.”

The end result is something both directors feel proud to have made. “I hope that is both informative and entertaining, but above all, I hope that it can actually make a difference – that the film might prevent further harassment in the future for guys who’ve done nothing wrong,” concludes Reeve.

“Tyrel” Defines Black Man With White Men

drama, suspense, , ,

Written and Directed by Sebastián Silva, Tyrel follows the solitary black man on a weekend birthday party of only men and heavy drinking. His name is Tyler, played by Jason Mitchell. He joins his friend, played by Christopher Abbott, on a trip to the Catskills with several people he doesn’t know, and they are all white men.

The handheld camera and sharp cuts by Alexis Zabé along with the editing by Sofía Subercaseaux and Jennifer Lame sustain the perilous tone.

Although Tyler welcomed, he can’t help but feel uneasy around a close-knit group of white guys. The combination of alpha male posturing include large quantities of alcohol starts to get out of hand, and Tyler’s precarious situation starts to feel like a nightmare.

The movie shot with a handheld style probing subtext and body language conjures an undeniable underlying tension of the American climate. The story evolved from Silva’s observation of racial tensions in a strictly male setting.

On a crisp snowy winter’s day, Tyler and his friend John, two young restaurateurs from New York City, push a car along a back road high in the Catskills Mountains. They’re on the way to a weekend getaway to celebrate the birthday of Pete, played by Caleb Landry Jones, one of John’s old friends, at a cabin in the woods.

Tyler needs the excursion, even though he will be among mostly strangers, because the home he shares with his Puerto Rican girlfriend, played by Ann Dowd, is packed with her visiting family, along with her ailing, elderly mother to whom she is devoted.

Having an empty gas tank is only the first in a series of discomforting moments Tyler encounters and causes over the next 48 hours. Right off the bat, one of his new acquaintances mishears his name as “Tyrel,” a subtle but significant alteration that both gives Sebastián Silva’s latest film its title and sets up a theme of racially-tinged, innuendos that leads the good-natured Tyler towards a shaky mental edge.

The Chilean Silva, who has lived in New York for the past 17 years, approaches the subject of race as an outsider to American culture, but an insightful writer of alienation. The story unfolds by capturing natural moments with the talented ensemble cast.

The cast, which includes Michael Cera, represents a range of electric and sometimes eccentric personalities, expands on a situation Silva initially observed while vacationing in Cuba with a friend of his. They came across a group of American tourists, drunk and in their mid-20s, and all but one of them white.

“It was probably my imagination, but the black guy seemed alienated. Alienation is a topic that interests me, and I saw it right there. And at that moment, this guy’s alienation was linked to the color of his skin. Racism feels like it’s always timely in America. It never ceases to be an issue, and that was part of it this moment. Something profound was happening there,” explains Silva.

Later, Silva’s friend went to his cabin in the Catskills to celebrate another friend’s birthday. “And they were all white, and one of them was black, but there was nothing awkward about their dynamic.  At the very end of their weekend, they took a selfie and the black dude was the one who took it. That selfie also inspired this film. The mixture of that moment with what we had witnessed and talked about in Cuba made a case for something compelling, so I explored it,” recalls Silva.

“I wanted Tyrel to be the movie that speaks for the middle-class black guy,” he says, “the black guy that wasn’t a thug. The black guy that’s like most of the black guys out there these days. There are a lot of black guys that are trying to be successful and do things in their lives, but they get in the situations that are awkward for them that they don’t know how to handle.”

Although the film deals with tension arising from racial difference, nothing about the story, or the characters, is purely black or white. Instead, the movie shows a lot of layers, so the story is not directly in the racial issue. “I’m not completely sure these guys mean to be cruel or to look down on Tyler. Black people have been put in such a generic box. So, Tyler’s not going to be a saint and he’s not going to be a victim. I don’t want to have clear victims or clear victimizers. I don’t want to have the bad guy and the good guy. I don’t want a conversation about taking sides. I want to make people think about what they witness. This movie will live in every American’s own set of prejudices and opinions. I want people to be somehow troubled by the conclusions they come to on their own,” reckons Silva.

The Quake Grabs On and Never Let’s Go

drama, foreign films, suspense, thriller, , , ,

Directed by John Andres Anderson, The Quake begins in 1904 when an earthquake with a 5.4 magnitude on the Richter scale shook Oslo. Its epicenter located in the Oslo Rift runs directly through the Norwegian capital. Quakes from the rift happen daily. Geologists cannot be sure, but arguments indicate that we can expect major future earthquakes in this area. When the major earthquake happens, nobody can say for certain. The density of people and infrastructure in Oslo is significantly more vulnerable today than in 1904.

The impressive cast includes Kristoffer Joner,Ane Dahl Torp,Kathrine Thorborg Johansen,Jonas Hoff Oftebro, and Edith Haagenrud-Sande.

According to Anderson he realized the facts about the earthquake were true, “The notion of a Norwegian earthquake movie was immediately somewhat absurd. Norway is actually the most seismic active area in northern Europe. In 1904 there was a major earthquake hitting the Oslo-region. This type of incident will happen again. And no one can say when.”

In 2015, The Wave was proof of a Scandinavia film, even on a limited budget, gives Hollywood competition in that genre. “They’ve had a monopoly and been supreme on the so-called ‘High Concept’ movie,” explains Anderson. “And at the same time also add a bit of Scandinavian flair to it. Even in the most faithful genre film, one should never sacrifice character drama. And neither did we want to with The Quake.”

The Wave and The Quake are produced by the same production company lead by Martin Sundland.

Anderson talked more about the important of never sacrificing character for drama. He sees them as instrumental to whether we as audience observe the disaster – or actually experience it. “Because if you’re not experiencing it, it doesn’t matter how spectacular scenes we manage to create. While delivering edge-of-the-seat-thrills, the development of the characters and the ties between the members of our family is always at the core of The Quake.”

The movie follows Kristian, played by Kristoffer Joner, a struggling father, trying to come to grips with what he has been through before this film. His daughter Julia, played by Edith Haagenrud-Sande, is desperately seeking her father’s care and attention. The love of Kristian’s life is Idun, played by Ane Dahl Torp. And all of them their lives completely changed by what Anderson calls “this merciless, brute and blind force of Norwegian nature.”

The movie is as physical, character-driven spectacle just as Anderson intended. He puts the audience the heart of an Oslo being torn apart, feeling the impact of these forces on the family who are trying to keep it together. The movie takes you on a riveting ride – emotionally, visually and finally full-on thrilling action. .

The movie never lets up, and it is constant action, harrowing situations with all odds against them, yet they overcome the obstacles to, yet, face another dire circumstance. Keeping me on the edge of my seat through the movie is a fantastic and remarkable way to see a movie.

Joner looks familiar because he’s starred in The Revenant and Mission Impossible: Fall out.

Anderson’s first time as a director, he started as a camera assistant for cinematography legend Sven Nykvist. He worked as a Director of Photography for many years on notable Scandinavian films such as Department Q: Conspiracy of Faith and Buddy.

The movie is in Scandinavian with English subtitles.  

The Last Race Ain’t Over Yet

documentary,

Directed by Michael Dweck, The Last Race is a documentary about Long Island’s last stock car race track, and its 87-year-old owners struggle to maintain the racing tradition. The last race track out of the original forty the owners face a real estate development boom. The track located prime property is worth at least 10 million.

The documentary is slow with not a lot happening unless you are a NASCAR fan. There is a fire that seems underplayed. I am not a race car fan of any kind, so I couldn’t relate to what happens in the movie. The end of the race where the camera is on the winner is memorable. A surge of understanding comes to light as I see the winner’s invigoration.

The movie is filled with vignettes and sound in a unique as a narrative form to draw the viewer into the world of essential racing culture and begrudgingly explores an about the blue-collar American identity. The movie is without suits and ties. We are talking jeans and t-shirts smeared with grease.

I learned about stock car racing. Long Island is the birthplace of American stock car racing. At its peak, there were over forty racetracks on Long Island, but today, only one remains. Riverhead Raceway is a quarter-mile track somehow managed to stay with the transformation of Long Island. The track, built in 1949, is where it settled on the edge of a small country road surrounded on every side by miles of farmland. Years later, the country road expanded into a highway and eventually the steady flow of traffic from the rest of the island made it a prime location for an outlet mall, and as the outlet mall grew, big retail followed.

Today, Riverhead Raceway is the only piece of land on the commercial strip of Old Country Road not developed. The land value is well over ten million dollars.

Money generates through ticket sales on summer weekends. It is barely enough to keep the lights on. The fact that the Riverhead Raceway remains open defies the laws of capitalism, and the only thing standing in the way of the bulldozers are 87-year-old Barbara and Jim Cromarty. Barbara and Jim bought the track in 1977, and they continue to run it even as multi-million dollar offers roll in, tempting them toward a well-deserved retirement. Barbara and Jim fight to keep it open because they understand that Riverhead carries the burden of being the last stock car racing on Long Island. When Riverhead is gone, it’s all over.

In the early days, Riverhead Raceway grew within a community that valued the desire to go fast. It started with old wrecks racing around a dirt oval in an empty field.

After spectators started turning up for the races, someone decided to lay down asphalt. The stands followed, and eventually, the Cromartys started charging admission and selling hot dogs and tee shirts.

As I watched the documentary, I get a sense that it more than racing. It’s a “lodge” of brethren blue-collar workers. They build racing machines and live for speed and the craziness associated with the chaos of the race and the drama of the pits. They are competitors and adrenaline enthusiasts. Like any competition, people have a reason to live and celebrate the victories or simple the stories of yesteryear of racing on Long Island.

Dweck said the racetrack buyout sure to happen, but it never happened in the movie. The last race is yet to be. The new owners run the same operation and continue the races each summer.

Dweck foresees the closing of Riverhead despite the new owners, “Riverhead Raceway is the last track on the Island. It’s only a matter of time before the bulldozers move in and Riverhead goes the way of other tracks before it, replaced by a shopping mall, or some other piece of disposable architecture. That’s what people want, and that’s okay.  But when it goes, something will be lost.”

Dweck bulldozing point of view comes from his shared interest in stock car racing as a young boy. He grew up to witness the shutting down and bulldozing of his favorite childhood pastime – Freeport Stadium on Long Island. The last gasp of his youth turning into a shopping mall or boxed store.

His first feature-length film, Dweck craft for telling a story falls flat but in a good way. The Riverhead is still hosting stock car races, and stock car race fans will appreciate the nostalgia of competitive racing with a homespun feeling.

The attitude and look of the winner of the last race sponsored by the Cromartys are worth watching. Hitherto, I understand the glory, nostalgia, or hype of being a race car winner.

Shoplifters – Cannes Palme d’Or Winner & Oscar-Nominee

drama, foreign films, movies, , , ,

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japanese movie Shoplifters is the 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or Winner and 2019 Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film.  The movie follows an oddball band of outsiders on the margins of Tokyo. They demonstrate a fierce loyalty with a penchant for petty theft and playful ways of making money dishonestly.

The fun and games end with the young son getting arrested. Secrets come to the surface and expose what little stability they did hold below-the-radar existence. They feel strong belief is not the blood that defines a family, but love defines the family. The premise is questioned and discussed throughout the movie

Kore-eda’s credits include Like Father, Like Son and Nobody Knows. Shoplifters movie is similar to these movies as an emotional exploration of the perseverance and tenacity of society’s outcasts and the love that sustains them. It is obvious why the movie won the Palme. The simplicity of the tender storytelling of inviting me to be a part of the imperfect people, showing what an oddball meaning to the family. Perhaps, redefining what a family is by showing a group of misfits similar sharing and behaving similarly to a family connected by blood.

“Shoplifters might be similar to Nobody Knows in the sense that this film also explores closely the sort of ‘punished’ families we regularly see in news reports. It wasn’t my intention simply to describe a poor family or the lower levels of the social strata. I rather think that the family in the film ended up gathering in that house not to collapse there. I wanted to shine a light on such a family from a different angle,” adds Kore-eda.

Like a voyeur, Shoplifters draws me into their daily lives through various circumstances developed and bonded together as a way to survive. Centered in the family’s cohesiveness is achieving their livelihood through petty theft and grifting. The children of the group are played beautifully and endearing by Jyo Kairi and Miyu Sasaki. I ponder the director’s uncanny ability to facilitate the actors as a cohesive metaphor to the brilliance of life itself.

“I started to think about which elements were unfolded and would be examined deeply after the casting was settled. As a result, this film is packed with the various elements I have been thinking about and exploring these last 10 years. It is the story of what family means, a story about a man trying to be a father, and furthermore, a coming-of-age story of a boy,” explains Kore-eda

The movie is worth watching, but it is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Spiral: Anti-Semitism in France

documentary, drama, foreign films, ,

Directed by Laura Fairrie, Spiral is a documentary exposing the fact that over the last two decades, a rise in physical attacks and verbal assaults on Jews documented in many countries across Europe. Particularly, Jews in France are forced into a ghetto living condition, while some, are driven to leave France and immigrate to Israel.

At the same time an increasingly fractured world has exposed deep political, social, and racial division, especially in France. The documentary is about how a cycle of fear, hatred, and violence has taken hold.

I am not a fan of documentaries because they easily create an image or vision that twists or skews the facts or truth of a situation. Spiral seems to be a movie about bigotry with an anti-religious (anti-Semitism) happening in France. Apparently, the government is doing nothing about it.

According to a conversation with Fairrie, she was approach by John Battsek, produced One Day In September, with the idea of investigating widespread reports of rising attacks and abuse against Jewish people in Europe.

“After an intensive research period I wrote a detailed document outlining my creative vision and the ournalism at the heart of the film. Once Cohen Media committed to financing the film,” says Fairrie.

The documentary is about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in France. The feel throughout the movie is fear with undercurrents of dread and distrust.  Yet, the scenes with the teacher, François, changed the rhythm of the documentary. He understood the tensions on all sides. Like he was an insider and knew the cause and effect of anti-Semitism.

Fairrie, somehow, obtained access to Dieudonné, who is a French anti-Semitist comedian. He is well-known entertainer of African descent, disreputable for mockery of the Holocaust while jabbing with anti-Semitism in general. Fairrie got him to talk about his point of view in the matter.  I was happy to hear in the movie that a legal team is prosecuting him.

Some of the stories of hatred are hard to believe, and it’s hard to confront such a situation in beautiful France. If one religion is being attacked, then all religions are being attacked. Religious freedom!

The documentary is primarily in French with English subtitles. The cinematography by Jean-Louis Schuller is beautiful at times and works with the story of Jewish people in terrible situations. The movie is not entertaining. The information is disheartening and without a sound resolution.

The Dark: Horror Movie With Substance

horror, ,

Written and directed by Justin P. Lange, The Dark is about a killer ghost who meets a lost soul. The movie is Lange’s debut as a director, and he hit the scary ringer. The movie is the production company’s biggest hit in 2018 and their most liked as a horror DVD. Horror fans pay attention because you want to see this movie.

The story unravels just outside a small town in a dense forest called Devil’s Den. The den is known as a mysterious area of woods. Many enter the woods, but no one ever leaves the woods.

Like all mysteries, the home-grown legend is about the spirit of a girl, played by Nadia Alexander. Murdered in the Devil’s Den, she haunts and hunts for victims. She brutally slays anyone who risks walking in her terrain.

A young man, played by Toby Nichols, with a dark past enters Devil’s Den. A series of events are set in motion that may lead to redemption for two tragically tortured souls.

The movie is a part gothic fairytale and part chilling horror. Lange methodically poises rich imagery with brutal and bloody storytelling. The two unlikely kindred spirits must defend themselves against the so-called normal world.

Both Alexander and Nichols performances are truthful and heartfelt. Lange’s script moves along and kept me interested and caring for the characters.  In general, the movie is receiving accolades from LA Times, Variety, and Horror Society.

“A moving and poetic tale about how neglect and abuse can turn people into freaky beasts, and how love can bring them back.” – LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Writer and director Justin P. Lange created and conquered one of the best horror films of the year. It’s emotional, slightly artistic and so disturbing and frightening. A true master-class in film-making. I am so blown away” – HORROR SOCIETY

Japanese Artist: Kusama: Infinity Documentary Transcends Imagery

documentary, indie, true story,

Directed by Heather Lenz, I discovered Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in the documentary Kusama: Infinity. The movie is a spotlight on the celebrated artist, according to the New York Times the documentary is “illuminating access to an artist’s way of thinking and working,” and I agree.

Kusama accounts her journey, the well-crafted documentary encounters her journey into the world of art. It starts with her conservative family in Japan to the milestones and triumphs that evolved her career.

The documentary shows a rare, but emotional, glimpse into Kusama’s six-decade career. Lenz captures the critical moments that led to her success, though some were hard to believe. What I didn’t know was she penned a letter to renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe for guidance. O’Keeffe wrote back and recommended Kusama risk everything to move to New York City.

Kusama decided to make a name for herself in NYC based on O’Keeffe’s letter. The young Kusama hit the streets of the art world by a boom. Captivating art aficionados with her signature polka dots, she brought light to the industry, and at the same time, shook up the conventional norms.

Today, she is the top-selling female artist in the world. The story amazes me how Kusama prevail over terrible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the art scene. For years and years, she pushed her work, going beyond the boundaries that often alienated her from both her peers and those in power in the art world.

The documentary is about an underdog, who never had a chance, but made it happen despite the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II.  Her life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism, and racism in the art establishment, and emotional turmoil in a culture where that was predominantly shameful. She continued to pursue her career as a full-time artist at the point of her 90s.

In spite of it all, Kusama has endured and has created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry, and literary fiction. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her installation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.

I still think about this documentary and hope others are inspired. Her work is spiritual and transcending. One negative aspect about the movie is how quick people like Lenz are to pigeon hole an artist as mentally ill when all they are is being themselves and living life to create their art form.