Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason

David Sutherland's entertaining and unconventional portrait of Jack Levine, America's foremost social-realist painter. Levine is a hard-edged satirist. His artwork, focusing on the McCarthy hearings, Southern desegregation, Mayor Daly at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and Frank Sinatra with Vegas showgirls, scandalized the art world beginning with his days at the WPA. Levine talks about art, politics, baseball, and the Bible; rages against the New York art scene; and paints a portrait of his daughter Susanna in this wonderful documentary.

Independent documentary portraitist David Sutherland wrote, directed, produced and edited "The Farmer's Wife" in 1998. The Chicago Tribune called it, "one of the extraordinary television events of the decade." The 6.5-hour series had 18 million PBS viewers who responded with more than a million website hits and to date, over 30,000 emails. The response cut across class, race, age and gender; from as many urban viewers as rural; and more than half wrote that they had come upon "The Farmer's Wife" while channel surfing. The Television Critics Association nominated "The Farmer's Wife" for awards in three categories: Best Program of the Year, Best Miniseries & Specials, and Best News & Information Program. His filmmaking technique could best be described as cinematic portraiture-­a style that requires a great deal of intimacy between filmmaker and subject. Sutherland combines technical virtuosity with an intense human connection to the film's subjects. "The sound is designed so the viewer hears the Buschkoetters [in "The Farmer's Wife"] breathing, sighing, and groaning from 100 yards away. My objective," says Sutherland, "is to make you feel that you're living in their skin." Some of his films which have aired nationally on PBS are: "George Washington:The Man Who Wouldn't Be King," for The American Experience, "Jack Levine: Feast of Pure Reason," a portrait of the social realist painter, "Paul Cadmus: Enfant Terrible at 80," a portrait of the gay social satirist and painter, "Feast of the Gods," for the National Gallery of Art about the mystery surrounding a painting by Titian and Bellini, "Halftime: Five Yale Men at Midlife," a portrait of five men from the class of 1963. "Out of Sight," a portrait of a blind cowgirl addicted to independence and sex. "High Energy," a portrait of physicist Melissa Franklin which was the lead film for the PBS series "DiscoveringWomen." David Sutherland graduated from Tufts University and attended U.S.C. Film School. He has been married for twenty-eight years to his co-producer Nancy Sutherland. The Sutherlands are currently filming in the hills of eastern Kentucky making a three-year documentary portrait of four teenaged boys who will get under your skin and into yourimagination. David Sutherland Productions, Inc. BOX 163 WABAN, MA 02468 TEL 617-244-5684 FAX 617-965-0285 website: www.davidsutherland.com email: drsutherland@earthlink.net