There are good evenings and then there are great evenings. Today’s evening was spectacular. We managed to be on time for the one and only screening of the Anne-Marie Russell movie “Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz” at the Reade Theater in Lincoln Center. It was Anne-Marie Russell’s birthday today (She is the incredibly incredible director and producer of this documentary) and she could not have given herself and us a better birthday present than this spectacular movie about Vik, the incredible Sculptor, Draftsman, Magician, and I guess also photographer. The movie was a real tour de fun. Not only did we have an opportunity to listen to the direct real story of Vik Muniz (read mun-EEZ), as told by him, it was just such a well put together little piece of work that it really managed to extend the feeling for the work without ever being too intimidating or theoretical. As approachable as Vik’s work can be, as approachable did he seem in the movie and as approachable was the entire movie. There was just such incredible ness to the piece, which was put together from various material sources. The editing was spectacular, as it managed to turn the entire collection of media into one linear piece of art itself. Truly great work by the director, the team and by Vik. We enjoyed the work very, very much. And Happy Birthday!
We shook hands. An older lady spoke to the director and we noticed that she stole some of the sandwiches from the buffet. The buffet? Well, there was a buffet after the screening. There were great (blurry) photographs by Coke Wisdom O’Neal (really his name), and the only person missing was probably Vik Muniz himself. He is currently on his Honeymoon (congratulations) in Turkey. Blessings to him. A great, great, great story. And a great, great, great movie, about a truly great contemporary artist. I really hope somebody will pick up this movie for their distribution or TV station and I hope that we soon will all be able to see it (again).
Until then, take a look at the movie’s site, as well as a look at the story behind the scenes. This little movie was just wonderful. Thank You Anne-Marie Russell, Thank you Vik Muniz.