An intimate look at artist, Ana Mendieta, whose exile from her homeland Cuba inspired her pioneering art in the landscape. Family and friends speak out after more than 30 years, interwoven with newly discovered audio of the artist alongside her visually captivating Super 8 films.
SYNOPSIS
This documentary gives an intimate first look at the untold life story of artist Ana Mendieta who is admired by the art world and is now being discovered by the world at large. Sent from her homeland, Cuba, at the age of 12, Mendieta discovered art could become a tool to heal her feelings of loss and displacement. Her work explored themes of exile and a return to the land, in which she used her body and nature as a medium. She was a rising star in the art community of the late 1970's/early 80's for her pioneering and groundbreaking work, and received two NEA grants, a Guggenheim and the prestigious Prix de Rome Award.
On September 8, 1985, Ana Mendieta fell to her death from minimalist artist Carl Andre's apartment. The two had been married for only nine months. The scandal of this tragedy split the art world as people took sides when Andre was arrested for his wife's murder. After a bench trial, Andre was acquitted, and slowly disappeared from the public eye as Mendieta's rise in the art world continued to grow.
Ahead of its time, Mendieta's work resonates even stronger today. She has become an icon and considered by many to be today's Frida Kahlo. Her work is now in major museum art collections such as The Met, MoMA, The Guggenheim, The Whitney, The Tate, and Pompidou and her art and story is now being discovered by mainstream audiences.
Director Statement
Raquel Cecilia has been waiting a very long time to tell her aunt’s story and considers Ana to be the impetus for her passion for storytelling. Questions such as how to keep Ana Mendieta alive and honor the artist's intent to focus on the work, when the mystery of her death threatens to continually overshadow it, are at the heart of the director's vision.
This documentary includes never released audio of Ana Mendieta interwoven with interviews with Ana Mendieta's sister, brother and her closest friends in an effort to show audiences who Ana Mendieta really was and what her work meant. This is the only authorized project by the artist's estate and has full access to Mendieta's art and the family's archive.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Raquel Cecilia
Raquel Cecilia is an independent filmmaker and writer best known for her recent films on her aunt, Ana Mendieta. Her first feature, shot on Super 16mm, was a festival favorite traveling to over 25 LGBTQ film festivals around the world, such as Frameline’s Festival in San Francisco, NewFest in NYC, Inside Out in Toronto, and BFI’s Flare Festival in London.
Raquel’s short films have screened in numerous museums and theaters internationally such as BAMPFA in Berkeley CA, CONTACT Gallery in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival, the Jeu de Paume art museum, Paris and is on permanent view in Havana, Cuba at the Museo de Bellas Artes. She has published essays in numerous art catalogues, most notably the essay on her experience overseeing the digital restoration of Mendieta’s moving image works on film and video in the catalogue "Ana Mendieta: Covered in Time & History". Raquel holds an MFA from UCLA’s Producers Program and is repped by Victoria S. Cook at Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz.
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Women Make Movies (WMM), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit media arts organization registered with the New York Charities Bureau of New York State and accepts charitable donations on behalf of this project. Your donation will be spent by the filmmaker(s) toward the production and completion of this media project. No services or goods are provided by Women Make Movies, the filmmaker(s) or anyone else associated with this project in exchange for your charitable donation.
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