The End of Fear

2018 Festival Images\End_of_Fear_1.jpg

Showings

TIFF Lightbox 4 Thu, Apr 26, 2018 6:45 PM
Scotiabank Theatre 4 Fri, Apr 27, 2018 4:15 PM
Fox Theatre Fri, May 4, 2018 6:45 PM
Film Info
Runtime:70
Copyright:2018
Country Listing:Netherlands
Premiere Status:North American Premiere
Rating:PG
Festival Info
Festival Year:2018
Language:Dutch
English
Accessibility:Partial Subtitles
Program Category:Artscapes
Film Subjects:Art & Artists
Capitalism & Big Business
Crime & Punishment
Politics & Political Intrigue
Website:http://www.defamilie.net
Cast/Crew Info
Director(s):Barbara Visser
Producer(s):Monique Busman
Executive Producer(s):JeanMarc van Sambeek
Judith Reuten
Editor(s):Xander Nijsten
Writer(s):Barbara Visser
Bart Haensel
Cinematography:Niels van Koevorden
Composer:Juho Nurmela
Sound:Tijn Hazen

Description

A violent stabbing, a million-dollar con job and a government cover-up are just three of the Hollywood-scale scandals surrounding one of the world's most controversial paintings, "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III." The massive abstract work by Barnett Newman was slashed to ribbons by a visitor to Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum in 1986. With a highly inventive multi-disciplinary approach, filmmaker Barbara Visser revisits not only the shocking front-page crime but the equally sensational calamities that followed, namely a botched restoration and a contentious fraud trial. Using audio of her phone calls with the attacker and archival footage of Newman discussing his abstract style, as well as commissioning a new artist to reproduce the questionably valued original, Visser deftly probes the role of abstract art. Who decides the value of an idea? Who does that concept belong to? And when, if ever, do those two notions stop existing? Myrocia Watamaniuk

Additional Information

The Gate - "15 Must See Documentaries from the Opening Weekend of Hot Docs' 25th Landmark Year."