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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. Now available on DVD

From MovingPicturesMagazine.com

Director: Pietra Brettkelly
Starring: Vanessa Beecroft, Madit & Mongor Akot, Greg Durkin, Jeffrey Deitch.

Bretkelly's documentary opens with a scene from the Venice Biennale of 2004. Black models prepare to be doused in a lustrous red paint, and the artist calls categorically, "I need more blood." The event, artist Vanessa Beecroft's "VB61: Darfur - Still Death, Still Deaf?," placed Darfur and the plight of the Sudanese in the austere art world's supreme spotlight, and Beecroft's travels to the region might also have aided in building the current awareness of the tenuous situation that still exists and which has since attracted significant celebrity film and philanthropic efforts.

That Beecroft is an astounding artist is well evidenced by the similarly seductive photography lensed by the doc's cinematographer, Jacob Bryant. That Beecroft's work transitioned from titillating to important as a consequence of her experiences during the period of this documentary also appears inarguable. However, the issue at the heart of this documentary is one that's grabbed headlines throughout the year, thanks in no small part to Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Madonna: adoption.

After being photographed nursing Sudanese twins who'd lost their mother, Beecroft set about adopting the pair. And the filmmaker catches the artist oscillating between acts of selflessness and understanding, and acts of utter self-indulgence. For example, Beecroft:
- professes her concern for how peers might dismiss her actions as an attempt to own something "exotic";
- allays the concerns of the twins' family by assuring them she would endeavor to teach them about their Sudanese culture and the Dinka language; to
- is so obsessed with capturing a shot that she flouts local customs by photographing the children naked in a church; to
- omits telling her husband, with whom she already has two children, of her intention to bring the twins back to the U.S.; to
- introduces the world to her nanny, her consort and her cleaner, all of whom seem to spend more time with Beecroft's actual children than she does.

All tallied, Britkelly's portrayal of the arrogant see-sawing artist-cum-concerned creative-type is both dizzying and dazzling.

Of particular import to Sundance fans is the film's revelation of another position, here articulated by the Bishop of Rumbek, Caesar Mazzolari. Mazzolari refers to the "lost boys" of Sudan (the subject of Christopher Quinn's 2006 Sundance Award-winning documentary, God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan) as a sophisticated form of slavery, and expressly dismisses adoption as serving only to rob the region of its soldiers and its intelligentsia.

The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins is a film filled with rich complexities: Is the subject's work one of "upsetting beauty"? Yes. Is it exploitative? Definitely. The position that celebrity adoption often lacks a cultural sensitivity, a position taken by some in the film, is a point well made. However, the progressive statement made by such celebrities, that this region needs help even at the expense of personal sacrifice, is powerful also. Beecroft is no ignorant white woman, and, whether it is owing to her work or her actions, others will not be ignorant, either.

Photos provided courtesy of dominion3 public relations.
http://www.theartstarandthesudanesetwins.com/