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Befitting a profile documentary about an artist whose work thoughtfully engages in intellectual activism, Shut Up and Paint is a film unusually occupied by questions of process and power. This makes for a narratively unresolved, but fascinatingly layered piece that eschews tidiness in favor of a poetic struggle, both at the level of its subject and their representation, but also at the level of the filmmaking itself. The film documents an ethical crisis in the career of one of the art world’s shining stars, Titus Kaphar, as he struggles with the commodification of his work and the surrounding pressure to blunt his activism in the name of marketability. A Black American from humble beginnings, Kaphar rose to prominence via bold, provocative work that “reconfigures and regenerates art history to include the African-American subject“.   A Grand Prize winner at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the film played across the United States as part of public television’s POV program. It is currently in the running for Oscar and on the basis of its inclusion in DocNYC’s “Contender” series and its nomination for this year’s Cinema Eye Honors, it has to be considered one of the favorites to make the cut. Good luck to Kaphar, Mallis, and team, I expect that this is a film we’ll be returning to throughout this awards season.  Analogous Colors” was featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s June 15th, 2020 edition. Capitalism absorbs dissent though, and Kaphar finds himself pondering his naivete early in the film as the sale price of his paintings moves into the six and seven figures. A gallerist asks if Kaphar could “focus every interview given to (his) painting, to the work, and not the message” as that might help make his work more palatable to curators. Kaphar, exasperated, finds the requests shortsighted to the point of offense—what is his art without the meaning that fuels it? Simultaneously, he ruminates on his recognition in elite Art World circles.  Nominally it is a victory for representation that he is able to break through, however, being absorbed into this larger elite (and very white) world means that his art has been largely priced out of the homes of people of color.    Kaphar at work in his studio If the film does not wrap its narrative in a tidy bow, it is because the questions with which it grapples do not lend themselves to pat solutions. The explicit conundrums of Kaphar’s artistic commodification and the film’s implicit recognition of the documentary medium’s director/subject power imbalance are valuable themes precisely because of the questions they raise rather than the answers they are able to provide. This sort of indeterminacy is rather brave for a documentary I feel, as too often the medium is one that prescribes exactly what its audience is supposed to feel and conclude after viewing. — - Short of the week 

One day, I saw this dazzling darkness, and it devoured me. Then, I no longer existed.  We often tend to dream, expect, and imagine the things we wished we had. Dreaming is a catalyst for a better future. However, I see dreams in two different ways. One being that dreams give off a sense of motivation and the other that dreams create a sense of delusion within. As humans, our dreams block us from seeing the things that are right in front of us. Although dreams are meant to keep us alive, they also make us forget our existence and our purpose. In the end, our lack of awareness of our surroundings can drive us to forget who we really are. The project, Dream, is a short film that is created based on a visual poem, “Lonely Wintry Moon,” which I wrote portraying myself losing my existence to follow this invisible dream.  Directed by Sofie Lee behance.net/sofielee Dream.  Life is like a warm breeze that carries the redolent of spring, the colors that transmute the sky from dusk till dawn. Like a little chaste sprout that just pushed out the ground dauntlessly. A small water drop that just landed on a wild flower to tell its story from a long itinerary 
But I’m an indigent goldfish that is floundering helplessly in this tiny bowl enveloped by hollow plastic plants and just gazing at this beautiful world; a xanadu I can’t be a part of it I am a puddle on the street that reflects the blue sky and makes graceful ebb and flow of waves coalesced with the spring breeze but I’m merely a deserted puddle wandering aimlessly. Then a bleak, lonely wintry moon devoured my life. The life of warmth, beauty, love, and passion departed. Then, time stopped, everything lost its colors. It froze my heart and only the whiteness lingered in silence with me. Design : Sofie Lee behance.net/sofielee Animation Direction : Omid Seraj oseraj.com Voice Over : Stella Stocker stellastockervoice.com Music : Wesley Slover, Joe Basile sonosanctus.com / thechicken.net   Sound : Joe Basile thechicken.net  Mix : Trevor Richardson sonosanctus.com Behind the Scenes : behance.net/gallery/66089533/Dream  

About the Presenter: Visionary artist Alex Grey began his career as a medical illustrator at Harvard Medical School, but is best known for paintings that present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. His work has been featured in Time and Newsweek, on the Discovery Channel, and as album art for TOOL, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana.