Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival

Man Ray's Famous Photograph

Wednesday, November 2----Three films showing at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival will focus on the creative life and careers of three different artists, each in a style all its own. The three films make an interesting triptych that demonstrates how the art of film can be used to interpret the art of the canvas or photograph.

A local South Florida artist with an international following, Purvis Young is a prolific painter who uncovers the beauty and uniqueness of Miami's Overtown district, the traditional home for African-Americans for almost 100 years. The documentary film PURVIS OF OVERTOWN captures the unique sensibility of this South Florida institution.

The film, co-directed by photographer David Raccuglia and Shaun Conrad, traces the artist back to his roots in the Overtown of the 1940s, a segregated but lively mecca for black arts and entertainment. Featuring exhaustive interviews with Young in his Overtown studio, the film is a moving tribute to a community in transition and its most famous artistic son. PURVIS OF OVERTOWN will screen at the historic Parker Playhouse on Saturday evening, November 4 at 7:15pm. Several of the producers are expected to attend.

A highly anticipated film on the Festival calendar is an award-winning artist portrait of one of the most influential painters/photographers of the 20th century, Man Ray. In the film MAN RAY: PROPHET OF THE AVANT GARDE, celebrated director/producer Mel Stuart offers an intoxicating look at the famed Dada artist, expatriate and innovator and the milieu that he inhabited in post-World War I Paris. The film was originally presented in 1997 on the PBS American Masters series.

Man Ray

Narrated with great gusto by actress Stockard Channing, the film includes recovered archival materials, candid film footage personally shot by Man Ray, a never-before-seen video interview unearthed in the vaults of a Rotterdam museum, and long lost drawings from his student days that have not been seen since 1908. The documentary was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1997 for Outstanding Information Special.

Stockard Channing

MAN RAY: PROPHET OF THE AVANT GARDE screens as part of a Mel Stuart Tribute film series at The Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art on Thursday, Nov 9, 7:30pm. Stuart produced and directed dozens of documentaries -- among them, THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT, BILLY WILDER: THE HUMAN COMEDY, WATTSAX, SOPHIA: A PORTRAIT, as well as the original children's classic WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, starring Gene Wilder. All of the above films will be featured during the Festival. Mel Stuart will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Festival's Awards Gala on Saturday evening, November 11.

Mel Stuart on the set of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY]

Director George Gallo mixes documentary technique with original drama in his autobiographical film LOCAL COLOR, which will be the Closing Night Gala for the Film Festival on Sunday, November 12 at 5:00pm at the Parker Playhouse. Gallo based his original script on his own experiences as an ambitious teenager who wants to become a painter. As a young man, he meets the reculusive Russian painter Seroff, who at the time was questioning his commitment to art and life itself.

What transpires between them is a motivational story of optimism and following one's heart desire. The film features an all-star cast including Armen Muller-Stahl, Ray Liotta, Ron Perlman, Samantha Mathis and Charles Durning, with an impressive debut by Trevor Morgan as the teenage artist.

Gallo, who still paints landscapes and abstract pieces, is a prolific film writer and director, having directed such films as WISE GUYS, starring Danny Devito and Joe Piscopo, and the classic buddy film MIDNIGHT RUN, with the unlikely duo of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

George Gallo

Recent films have included 29TH STREET, with Danny Aiello and Anthony LaPaglia, BAD BOYS starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and THE WHOLE TEN YARDS, with Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. Gallo just wrapped directing his script of HOMELAND SECURITY, starring Antonio Banderas.

George Gallo, Samantha Mathis and Trevor Morgan are scheduled to attend the film screening and the Festival Wrap Party which immediately follows.

Sandy Mandelberger
Online Festival Dailies Editor