Films on Art: First Screening

As part of our Upstairs/Downstairs exhibition, TAP studio resident Sebastian Di Trolio will project a selection of 16mm films from his on-site archive which profile various Canadian artists through first hand interviews, exploring their processes and revealing the passions with which they infuse in their artistry. This free event will be in the theatre with screenings at 2 pm, 4 pm and 6 pm for all ages. No registration required.

Two films about uncompromising artists in their twilight years.  

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Lady (Gail Singer, Canada, 1982)  27 minutes  

Paraskeva Clark, artist, socialist, feminist, is her own woman at her own cost. This film is a cameo of an irascible and oftentimes touching artist whose work has won her a place in exhibitions and private collections. Born in Russia in 1898, she eventually married a Canadian and moved to Toronto. Because her canvases reflect a strong social conscience, she had to struggle hard to earn a place in the nation's ultra-conservative galleries. – National Film Board of Canada 

Grandma’s Bottle Village: The Art of Trissa Prisbey (Allie Light & Irving Saraf, USA, 1982) 28 minutes 

Grandma Tressa Prisbrey built her first bottle house to hold her 17,000 pencils. This was the beginning of The Bottle Village in Simi Valley, Calif. At 84, Grandma Prisbrey is a vivacious guide to her brilliant houses crammed with objects scavenged from the county dump. At her wittiest-she sings, jokes with her older sister, and combs through the dump. The film is an exploration of Grandma Prisbrey's creativity, pizzazz and sense of the absurd.The film lovingly documents the interiors of 15 of her houses, including Cleopatra's Bedroom, The Round House, as well as the marvelous sidewalk mosaics -- all masterpieces of assemblage art and tapestries of artifacts from the first half of the 20th century. – folkstreams . net