The spirit of the Beecroft

Pietra Brettkelly’s documentary on Vanessa Beecroft The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins has been accepted for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema section. As far as we know, it is the first New Zealand documentary ever accepted. Brettkelly wrote and directed the film which follows Beecroft as she set out to adopt twin Sudanese orphans. Bringing her famously obsessive personality to the task, American über artist Beecroft tests her marriage and raises questions about “exploitation, culture clash, and the imposition of the West on Africa”. Another of Brettkelly’s documentaries, Beauty Will Save the World, about a contestant in Libya’s first ever beauty competition, screened at the American Film Institute Film Festival in Los Angeles. You can read about her other documentaries here.
Image: Vanessa Beecroft VbSouthSudan