MSP International Film Festival Special Event: The Doc & The Artist: Painting a Portrait April 22, 2012

Award winning filmmaking teams of Steve Ascher - Jeanne Jordan (Raising Renee) and Nancy Lang - Peter Raymont (West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson) come together to discuss their experiences completing their recent documentary films that each focus on the lives of two different well-known artists.

Topics will include the unique stylistic approaches chosen by the two filmmaking duos as they explore the artists’ histories, and highlight the social and historic issues that shape both their personal lives and their creative work. Also of focus, the challenges and opportunities of working with living artist Beverly McIver of Raising Renee and recovering information on the life of long deceased Canadian painter Tom Thomson, as well as the strategies of cinema verité and dramatic reconstruction.

Panel moderated by Robert Byrd, Program Director of the Jerome Foundation and Director of the Foundation’s Film and Video program, one of relative few grantmaking programs in the country that supports individual artists. Byrd is also a documentary filmmaker whose Emmy and Festival award winning work has been featured in American and European film festivals as well as national PBS and The Discovery Channel.

Films to be discussed:
Raising Renee
West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson

Official Website: http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/events-and-panels