Film Showing in Vancouver

	'MAGNIFICENT AND EVOCATIVE! As close as cinema gets to tracking the impulses and paradoxes of a gifted imagination.' —Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
	'THRILLING! Akin to being in a museum that's come alive.' —Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING

April 6 - 12 VANCITY THEATRE (Seymour and Davie Streets)

Directed by: Corinna Belz
(Germany, 2011, 97 min.)

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Corrina Belz's Gerhard Richter Painting is a fascinating documentary about Germany's Gerhard Richter– one of the world's most important contemporary artists–and the creative process behind his famous abstracts.

Gerhard Richter, who turned 80 earlier this year, is usually media shy. But in spring 2009, he invited Belz into his Cologne studio, telling her that he was about to start a new series of paintings. Over the next six months, Belz captured Richter at work, providing a fly-on-the wall look at his method.

The colors Richter prefers are classics like titanium white, ivory black, cadmium shades, red, ultramarine and lemon yellow. Beginning with a brush, he swishes paint over a giant canvas. Next he wields an oversized squeegee, scraping the paint on (and off), creating surprising layers. Every day brings a change. We see Richter wait, reject, rework and sometimes destroy, only to begin anew. He says the paintings "do what they want."

Richter works in a high-ceiling white studio, all alone except for his two assistants, whose jobs include straining the paint, so it doesn't lump. Working to a 1:50 scale, his assistants also hang miniature photos of the paintings in 3-D floor plans of London's Tate Modern or Paris's Centre Pompidou, so Richter can see exactly how his work will be exhibited.

The documentary shows Richter in contemporary situations, such as a meeting with his legendary New York gallerist Marian Goodman, as well as in archival material, including an interview Richter did in 1966, five years after fleeing as a political refugee from East to West Germany.

The film is written and directed by Germany's Corinna Belz, who first met Richter when she made Das Kölner Domfenster (2007), a documentary about the artist's stained glass window for the Cologne Cathedral.

The film is in German with English subtitles. Gerhard Richter Painting is being released in Canada by Mongrel Media.

Screening Information

Friday, April 6, 4:15pm + 7:45pm
Saturday, April 7, 9:00pm
Sunday, April 8, 6:45pm
Monday, April 9, 6:30pm
Tuesday, April 10, 8:10pm
Thursday, April 12, 3:00pm