Photograph by Irene Poon Andersen.
TYRUS
Director:
Pamela Tom
Premiere:
Telluride 2015
Select Festivals:
Sheffield, Hawaii, Asian American fests in NYC, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and Seattle
About:
A portrait of artist Tyrus Wong, best known for inspiring the look of Disney’s BAMBI.
Wong died at the age of 106 last year and only late in life received proper acknowledgement for his contributions to the Disney classic, as well as scores of other films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Tom’s tribute, while conventionally constructed, benefits greatly from the artist’s participation in extensive interviews, demonstrating warmth and offering personal reflections on his long, varied career as an artist. In addition to developing inspirational artwork for BAMBI and serving as a production illustrator for Warner Bros, Wong’s oeuvre includes Hallmark greeting cards, kite-making, and ceramic design. The supercentenarian relates his background, emigrating from China to California as a child, and how his father supported his at-the-time unusual career path as an artist, as well as the economic difficulties and racial discrimination that kept his work under-appreciated and unheralded for decades.
what (not) to doc 