Documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe screening at Violet Crown beginning this Friday

While the long-term future of the Violet Crown Cinema on the Downtown Mall remains in doubt, the short-term future includes having a place for local filmmakers to spotlight their work.

That’s the case this Friday when a documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe begins a theatrical run.

Georgia O’Keeffe: the Brightness of Light is the work of producer Ellen Casey Wagner and writer-director Paul Wagner. The film debuted at the Virginia Film Festival in November and this run is intended to celebrate Women’s History Month.

“Known as the ‘Mother of American Modernism,’ O’Keeffe exploded on the New York art scene in the 1920s with her paintings of flowers, bones, and the beauty of nature,” reads an information release sent out by the filmmakers in early February.

The release includes one quote from Roxana Robinson, a biographer of O’Keeffe.

“A beautiful, thoughtful and thoroughly reliable narrative of the artist’s life and her work,” Robinson said. “It is a joy to watch.”

Tickets can be purchased here. The filmmakers will offer a question and answer period after the 7 p.m. screening on Sunday.

Last week, the Board of Architectural Review voted unanimously to approve a certificate of appropriateness to demolish 200 West Main Street. I’ve not had a chance to write that up yet and am grateful Maggie Glass of WVIR 29News has a story.

O’Keeffe studied at the University of Virginia and lived at 1212 Wertland Street from 1909 to 1916. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Paul Wagner said the film covers O’Keeffe’s time in this community.

“O’Keeffe had stopped painting for four years when her sisters urged her to take a course at UVA in the summer of 2012,” Wagner said in an email. “Reluctantly, she attended the class….and it revitalized her passion for making art.”

View the trailer:

Before you go: This post originally appeared in the March 3rd edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and occasional podcast. Usually stories are published there first and then posted here to this website. Sometimes they’re posted here first. All of that is determined on an ad hoc basis. This may be confusing, but that is not the intent. This is an experiment in American journalism in the second quarter of the 21st century.