Description

In November 2001, Québec painter Edmund Alleyn (1931-2004) agreed to be filmed in his studio by his daughter, filmmaker Jennifer Alleyn. There, something unexpected happened: an authentic encounter, with no beating around the bush, no masks. From a few existential questions about life, painting, death truth emerged. To the question “What hasn’t changed in you since adolescence?” the artist replied, “The love of painting.” He added that this was only a partial answer, that he’d have to think about the question every day for a month to come up with something more complete. The artist died of cancer in December 2004 before Jennifer Alleyn could film him again. After inheriting his studio, she once again found herself in this sacred space, still imbued with the presence and imagination of her father. Her film is an attempt to prolong the dialogue, to find the missing fragments of her father’s life. Edmund Alleyn was an intense and complex man of integrity who left his mark on Canadian contemporary art. For Alleyn, art was an “incurable sickness.” Source: FIFA

Director: Jennifer Alleyn. Montréal: Amazone Film, 2008 (72 min).