Petals is a documentary film about vulvas and art, directed by Beck Peacock. It screens next week as part of the 2006 Victoria Arts Symposium, and I’ll be introducing it with a short talk.
The Symposium website explains their “Artists of Conscience” theme as
an exploration of how an artist’s work is impacted by their awareness of and involvement in vital and sometimes controversial social issues.
That’s Petals in a nutshell! The documentary follows San Diego photographer Nick Karras as he creates and publishes a book of fine art portraits of vulvas.
I’ve seen this film several times now, and I’m struck, over and over, by Nick’s perspective on his project. Everyone from Betty Dodson to Larry Flint adds comments about body image and pornography, self help and censorship and spirituality, and Nick seems like the only person in the film who can focus on the art.
It’s very interesting to me, because I spend a lot of time writing about vaginas and body image and pornography, and this artistic viewpoint is elusive.
So now I just have to figure out how to condense all this interesting subject matter into a 10 or 15 minute introduction to the film!
Come on down; I’ll have All About My Vagina buttons and other goodies. Or just come for the cheap movie!
Thanks to Marjorie Celona and CineVic for organizing.
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