Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists
Dir. Leslie Buchbinder
2014
107min
Producer, contributing cinematographer, archival researcher
A lavishly-illustrated romp through Chicago Imagist art: the Second City scene that challenged Pop Art’s status quo in the 1960s, then faded from view. Forty years later, its funk and grit inspires artists from Jeff Koons to Chris Ware, making the Imagists the most famous artists you never knew..
Festivals:
Minneapolis-St. Paul / Newport Beach / Milwaukee / San Diego Design / SF DocFest / Napa Valley / CineMarfa
Screened at art centers worldwide:
Liverpool Biennial / The New Museum / mumok Vienna / MCA Chicago / Goldsmiths CCA / Art Institute of Chicago / The Contemporary Austin
WTTW Chicago PBS broadcast
“Illuminating... helps fill a yawning gap in the conventional telling of American modern art’s story.” — Hyperallergic
“Featuring some 40 interviews plus archival footage and animation, the film makes a compelling case for the continued relevance of the Midwest’s merry pranksters. It also faces head-on the question of whether the artists’ resolute outsider stance, along with their second-tier base of operations, will inevitably relegate them to footnote status in postwar American art history.” — Art in America
“Fulsomely intelligent... both richly informative and utterly entertaining.” — Border Crossings
“Far from a dry litany of talking heads... A love letter.” — Chicago Tribune
Watch on ︎︎︎Vimeo or ︎︎︎iTunes
Dir. Leslie Buchbinder
2014
107min
Producer, contributing cinematographer, archival researcher
A lavishly-illustrated romp through Chicago Imagist art: the Second City scene that challenged Pop Art’s status quo in the 1960s, then faded from view. Forty years later, its funk and grit inspires artists from Jeff Koons to Chris Ware, making the Imagists the most famous artists you never knew..
Festivals:
Minneapolis-St. Paul / Newport Beach / Milwaukee / San Diego Design / SF DocFest / Napa Valley / CineMarfa
Screened at art centers worldwide:
Liverpool Biennial / The New Museum / mumok Vienna / MCA Chicago / Goldsmiths CCA / Art Institute of Chicago / The Contemporary Austin
WTTW Chicago PBS broadcast
“Illuminating... helps fill a yawning gap in the conventional telling of American modern art’s story.” — Hyperallergic
“Featuring some 40 interviews plus archival footage and animation, the film makes a compelling case for the continued relevance of the Midwest’s merry pranksters. It also faces head-on the question of whether the artists’ resolute outsider stance, along with their second-tier base of operations, will inevitably relegate them to footnote status in postwar American art history.” — Art in America
“Fulsomely intelligent... both richly informative and utterly entertaining.” — Border Crossings
“Far from a dry litany of talking heads... A love letter.” — Chicago Tribune
Watch on ︎︎︎Vimeo or ︎︎︎iTunes
