Richart
2001, 23 minutes, SD video
synopsis:
A tour through the mind of obsessive collagist and front yard artist Richard Tracy. While confined to a psychiatric ward at age 50, "Richart" Tracy made this discovery: "If you want to get out of the hospital - start making art like this. They will get rid of you - fast!" Seventeen years later, he's turned three residential lots into a massive black and white maze of his visions. This documentary takes a trip through his yard, art, methods and his mind. Wait until you see what he keeps in his basement!
credits:
score by The Topiary Kings
co-directed with Dawn Smallman
edit: Greg Snider
cinematography: Rankin Renwick, Bill Daniel, Dawn Smallman & Greg Snider
awards:
2009 Fargo Film Festival - Honorable Mention : Documentary Short
Microcinefest 2002- Grand Jury Award: Best Documentary
NW Film & Video Festival 2002 "Best of Festival" touring show
2nd Place Black Maria Film & Video Festival 2002
1st PlacePeripheral Produce Invitationals 2001
review:
"This time Rankin Renwick's search for the ultimate freakishness of real-life has hit the motherlode- and transcended. "Richart" is a hugely engrossing portrait of an artist whose brilliant eccentricities and habitual art-making resound with chilling depth and awesome, reverberant beauty."
-Todd Haynes