Basil Tsiokos is a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on nonfiction features. He was most recently with DOC NYC for nearly a decade, where he served as Director of Programming since 2014, and with the Nantucket Film Festival as its Film Program Director. Prior to those positions, Basil was the longtime Artistic and Executive Director of NewFest. He has been affiliated with Sundance since 2005 as a Programming Associate. Basil serves on the feature nominating committees for the International Documentary Association Awards and Cinema Eye Honors. He has written about documentaries daily since 2010 on what (not) to doc. Basil holds a Masters degree from New York University and two undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.
Coming to Netflix tomorrow, Saturday, June 26: WONDER BOY
Director: Anissa Bonnefont
World Premiere: French TV (October 2019)
Select Festivals: Tribeca, Paris Chéries Chéris, Compiegne
About: French fashion house Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing allows the camera to become his confidante as he embarks on a search for his birth mother.
About: A portrait of artist Kenny Scharf, whose work fuses popular culture and fine art.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read: Along with friends Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf grew from a graffiti artist into a major force in the 1980s NYC art scene. Obsessed with garbage, cartoons, and plastic, this playful Peter Pan’s roller coaster career flourished despite the decimation of the AIDS crisis and the fickle tastes of the art world. From street art to museums, Scharf continues to create colorful, complex work that puts him at the forefront of where popular culture meets fine art.
About: Friends, family, cartoonists, and notable fans of the iconic PEANUTS celebrate honor creator Charles Schulz and celebrate the global popularity and long-lasting significance of the comic strip.