Search - Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project on DVD

Illuminating

Harry Lime | NY | 10/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hmm. Was the reviewer who wants to put Tierney Gearon in jail really so shocked and appalled by this film? He seems to have still had the "nerve" to watch the whole thing. His puritanical view is really more shocking than anything you'll see in the film. The movie is a sensitive portrayal of a photographer mining the precarious terrain of her own life and her own family--brave and unsentimental art that is captured without judgement by the unobtrusive filmmakers. A brilliant and enlightening documentary on one person's life and creative process."

Thank God for REAL PEOPLE!

Therese | Portland, OR | 08/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Huh?

How could this last "reviewer" be so linear in his or her thinking? I thought it was a challenging, thought and emotion-provoking but beautiful film! Families come in all shapes and sizes and have all kinds of problems and this family while appearing unique, yes, is also a family that knows an incredible amount of love and acceptance of each other. These children are clearly raised by artists...and there is no such thing as a perfect artist (especially in a parent!) nor is there such a thing as a perfect parent, artist or not. Her children will have good stories to share when they grow up and they will most likely be free thinkers and movers and shakers. At the very least, I am fairly certain they will not say they weren't loved and I know they won't feel they'd been abused in any way. I applaud Tierney's ability to show off her body (same goes with her mother) and show her children that there is nothing wrong with the naked human body. There is nothing sexual going on but on the contrary, it is unusually wholesome -- and by "unusually" I simply mean by our culture's standards. Good for you Tierney. She shared her personal story with all its colors of beauty and love and dysfunction and she brought tears to my eyes (in the wee hours of the morning the other night when I couldn't sleep and stumbled across this film) because the "nakedness" of her story -- the honesty -- was very refreshing."

Art, Family and Madness

Berlinale | NYC | 08/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Celebrated photographer Tierney Gearon's work has been labeled manipulative, disturbing and even perverse. A former model and dancer, Gearon came to notorious fame in 2001 when photos of her own naked and masked children in the "I Am a Camera" show at London's Saatchi Gallery had authorities threatening child pornography charges.

Filmmakers Peter Sutherland (Pedal) and Jack Youngelson (Producer, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) follow this exceptional artist over the course of two years as she assembles her most daring and emotionally complex body of work to date: a series on her manic-depressive schizophrenic mother, who resides in Grey Gardens squalor in the frozen suburbs of upstate New York. The mixture of art and family can almost be too close for comfort, but like much of Gearon's photographs there is a subversive beauty that emerges from the incongruity between ordinary moments and madness. Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project is a moving and intricate portrait of an artist, her inspirations and unconventional family relationships.


SPECIAL FEATURES:
* Over 20 minute of deleted scenes, including footage from The Mother Project's New York gallery opening
* Home movies, including rare Super-8 footage
* Selected Tierney Gearon photos from the Mother Project series
* Statements from Tierney Gearon and the filmmakers
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Trailer
"

Remember Walt Whitman: "The Body Electric"

katerina ivanovna | OKC, OK | 03/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In response to the woman who wants to jail Tierney, I just watched the documentary and found it beautiful, honest, visceral. Many artists are provoked by the human body: Gary Snyder, Walt Whitman, Ginsberg, Marguerite Duras, Anne Sexton...the list is endless...even artists that may not have been aware of the body's impact on their art--I'm thinking of Christina Rossetti--probably didn't feel the need for some modern transubstantiation in order to at least sense the body as sacred. People who constantly sexualize the body (though I do not see this as a necessary bad thing either) are, it seems to me, often not able to perceive the ugliness, the beauty, the ineffable subtleties that the body has to teach us. We only live once in the skin around us. Let it be consoled by us and not reprimanded!
Thank you Tierney for your honesty. I didn't want you to see this woman's comment (if you ever waste the time by reading these) and think that all "Okies" are so insane.
My sister is schizophrenic. I identitfied with a great deal of this work through your documentary! I'll try to be there to fight for your freedom if the day comes when you are (like poor K) taken to jail for being human."