Tales from the Heart
90 mins | 2024
David Bickerstaff
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers
World Premiere Screening
Van Gogh is not only one of the most beloved artists of all time but perhaps the most misunderstood. This film uses Van Gogh’s revealing letters to better understand this iconic figure. The most exciting and dramatic period of Van Gogh’s life is explored on the big screen.
Sponsored by:
San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA)
Filmmaker Q&A:
(following each in-theatre screening)
Producer Philip Grabsky is flying in from London to attend this WORLD PREMIERE presentation and answer your questions about the film.
About
WORLD PREMIERE! FHFF is honored to present the world premiere of this remarkable documentary.
200 years after its opening and a century after acquiring its first Van Gogh works the National Gallery is hosting the UK’s biggest ever Van Gogh exhibition. Van Gogh is not only one of the most beloved artists of all time but perhaps the most misunderstood.
This film is a chance to reexamine and better understand this iconic artist. Focusing on his unique creative process, Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers explores the artist’s years in the south of France, where he revolutionized his style. Van Gogh became consumed with a passion for storytelling in his art, turning the world around him into vibrant, idealized spaces and symbolic characters.
Poets and lovers filled his imagination; everything he did in the south of France served this new obsession. In part, this is what caused his notorious breakdown, but it didn’t hold back his creativity as he created masterpiece after masterpiece. Explore one of art history’s most pivotal periods in this once-in-a-century show. Made by Seventh Art Productions’ in close collaboration with the National Gallery’s Exhibition on Screen series.
The film will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition and help audiences better understand the artist's unique creative process. It will focus on Van Gogh's years in the south of France, where he transformed the world around him into vibrant, idealized spaces and symbolic characters. The film will also explore how his desire to tell stories produced a landscape of poetic imagination and romantic love, and how this obsession in part caused his notorious breakdown.
FILMMAKER BIO
David Bickerstaff
Phil Grabsky
David Bickerstaff, Director
Director David Bickerstaff started his artistic career as a painter and is now an award-winning filmmaker who founded Atomictv in 1997 as a platform for developing digital art projects and collaborations. His arts-based documentaries have been broadcast and screened internationally in a variety of festivals such as Sheffield International, DOXA, IDA Los Angeles, International du Film sur L’Art Montreal, and the documentary fortnight at the Museum of Modern Art New York.
David has also been commissioned to produce videos and installations for museums and arts organizations such as Film and Video Umbrella, Art360 Foundation, The Wellcome Collection, Situations, V&A, The British Museum, and many others. He has written and directed 10 feature films for the event cinema brand Exhibition On Screen, which screens arts documentaries in 63 countries across a network of 1500 cinemas.(Vimeo) https://www.atomictv.com/
Phil Grabsky, Producer
Phil Grabsky and his company have been making films for TV & cinema for the past 30 years. Multiple award-winners, their films include 'I, Caesar - The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire' for the BBC, The Great Commanders for C4, over 100 Tim Marlow art shows for C5 and Sky Arts, Great Art for ITV, Terry Jones history films for Discovery, The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan for international cinema - and many more.
The most recent project, that Phil conceived in 2009, was to bring major art exhibitions, galleries, and artists to cinema screens around the world. This strand EXHIBITION ON SCREEN now plays in 61 countries.
Phil has also written four best-sellers - available now on Kindle and Audible.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Seventh Art Productions