Feb, 05, 2021
ArtNewsCommunity
PhxArt Films
REPRESENT
February 5, 2021
In 2019, Phoenix Art Museum celebrated 60 years of art, life, and community in the heart of our city, at the northeast corner of Central and McDowell. Over these past six decades, we have often heard stories from guests who experienced major life moments within the halls, galleries, garden, and public spaces of the Museum. Couples said “I do” in the Dorrance Sculpture Garden. High school seniors danced the night away with friends at their proms held in Cummings Great Hall. There were stories of breakups in the American Wing, proposals among the French Impressionist gardens, and first dates among the fireflies. As we celebrated our 60th year, we wanted to find a way to tell those stories, to share those life moments that happened in our Museum.
Thanks to the profound generosity of The Steele Foundation, the Museum, in honor of its milestone anniversary, set out to capture the story of Phoenix Art Museum through a series of three films that would weave together the experiences of our visitors using both poetry and narrative and created in collaboration with a team of Arizona-based filmmakers, who brought with them their own perspectives as Museum visitors. Today, we are pleased to announce the virtual world premiere of the third and final film in this series, Represent.
Represent follows a teenage boy through Phoenix Art Museum during a school field trip, an experience that yields an unexpected effect. Written and directed by Chris Heck, who wrote Wish You Were There and directed The First Time, the film explores the power and importance of representation in museum spaces and features Mykhal Polite in his first film.
Represent was made possible through the generosity of The Steele Foundation. It enjoyed its world premiere in 2020 at the Providence Children’s Film Festival in Rhode Island, where it received the 2020 Hasbro Children’s Hospital Audience Choice Award. The film was also selected for the 2020 New York International Children’s Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying festival, and the Pasadena International Film Festival. Represent additionally made its international debut in 2020 at the International Changing Perspectives Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey; was featured at the PRIDE Queer Film Festival in Perth Australia; and was presented at the Festival Brasil de Cinema Internacional, where it won for Best Production and was nominated for Best Short Film and Best Actor: Mykhal Polite.
Image credit: Represent, 2020. Film. Copyright ©2020 Quantum Leap Productions and Phoenix Art Museum. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.
About the Director: PhxArtist Spotlight
About the Film Editor: PhxArtist Spotlight
WISH YOU WERE THERE
December 4, 2020
In 2019, Phoenix Art Museum celebrated 60 years of art, life, and community in the heart of our city, at the northeast corner of Central and McDowell. Over these past six decades, we have often heard stories from guests who experienced major life moments within the halls, galleries, garden, and public spaces of the Museum. Couples said “I do” in the Dorrance Sculpture Garden. High school seniors danced the night away with friends at their proms held in Cummings Great Hall. There were stories of breakups in the American Wing, proposals among the French Impressionist gardens, and first dates among the fireflies. As we celebrated our 60th year, we wanted to find a way to tell those stories, to capture those life moments that happened in our Museum.
Thanks to the profound generosity of The Steele Foundation, the Museum, in honor of its milestone anniversary, set out to capture the story of Phoenix Art Museum through a series of three films that would weave together the experiences of our visitors using both poetry and narrative and created in collaboration with a team of Arizona-based filmmakers, who brought with them their own perspectives as Museum visitors. Today, we are pleased to announce the virtual world premiere of our second film in the series, Wish You Were There.
Set in the galleries of Phoenix Art Museum, Wish You Were There illustrates the power of art to create tender moments rooted in memory, connection, and love, both old and new. We hope you enjoy this narrative journey with us.
Wish You Were There was made possible through the generosity of The Steele Foundation. The world premiere of Wish You Were There was hosted earlier this year at the Sedona International Film Festival. The film, which was additionally released on Short of the Week and Omeleto today, is also an Official Selection of the Arizona Short Film Festival and was recently awarded the Phoenix Film Festival 2020 Copper Wing Award for Best Arizona Short Film.
Image credit: Wish You Were There, 2020. Film. Copyright ©2020 Quantum Leap Productions and Phoenix Art Museum. Courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.
About the Director: PhxArtist Spotlight
THE FIRST TIME
October 1, 2020
In 2019, Phoenix Art Museum celebrated 60 years of art, life, and community in the heart of our city, at the northeast corner of Central and McDowell. Over these past six decades, we have often heard from guests about their first visit to see us, which is often their first visit to any art museum. The Monet in our European wing was their first Impressionist painting. The Suicide of Dorothy Hale was their first Frida Kahlo. Kusama’s Fireflies was the first time they explored the universe without leaving Arizona. Traveling exhibitions over the years brought treasures from Asia, Europe, and beyond, from the legends of Hollywood films to the relics of Egypt to the mastery of Monet, Rembrandt, and da Vinci. As we celebrated our 60th year, we wanted to find a way to tell those stories, to capture those experiences of visitors passing through the doors of this institution for the first time.
Thanks to the profound generosity of The Steele Foundation, the Museum, in honor of its milestone anniversary, set out to create a series of films that would weave together the experiences of our visitors using both poetry and narrative to capture the story of Phoenix Art Museum.
Over the coming months, we will be releasing three short films, created by Phoenix Art Museum in collaboration with a team of local filmmakers who brought with them their own perspectives as Museum visitors. This October, we are pleased to announce the virtual world-premiere of our first film in the series: The First Time.
The First Time is a love letter, of sorts, from Phoenix Art Museum. And like any good love letter that waxes poetic about the moment when two star-crossed lovers meet, this film is the story of the first time the Museum met you.