22nd Calgary Underground Film Festival

April 17-27, 2025

13th CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival

November 19-23, 2025

Cliff: A Portrait Of An Artist

Canada, 2021: 49 minutes: Canadian Premiere
Archives 2021
CLIFF_STILL_10_36qff6C
Globe Cinema
Sun, Nov 28 11:00 AM Buy

description

A documentary-portrait of one of Winnipeg’s most successful visual artists, Cliff Eyland who, with only months to live, received a double-lung transplant and a new lease on life.

Cliff calls the year since his surgery an afterlife, even though he is precious about nothing. In fact his Zenfullness often borders on the lackadaisical. He spends every day in his studio, making art, and doling out his recently amassed wealth to less fortunate artists, because “Hey, you can’t take it with you.” A man who has been on every side of the art scene (writer, professor, curator, artist, model), Cliff sees the absurdity of it all very clearly. CLIFF: A PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST is an effort to understand how a man could slide, smiling into the Abyss, through 100 biopsies, 10,000 pills, and somehow reconcile his Artist’s ego with his complete coolness about mortality.

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Chattanooga Film Festival 2021

DIRECTOR'S BIO
Co-founder of Astron-6, Adam Brooks co-directed the feature films FATHER'S DAY (2011), and THE EDITOR (2014), as well as the short film CHOWBOYS (2018) before making his first documentary, CLIFF: PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST (2021).

Created by Lily, Podcast Coordinator for CJSW

Closed captioning is available for this film. Find Out More >

press for Cliff: A Portrait Of An Artist

"An extremely personal and emotional look at the life of Canadian artist Cliff Eyland ... do yourself a favor and make sure you seek out this film."
- Void Video

details

Animation / Documentary

English
49 minutes

credits

Director
Adam Brooks

Producer
Adam Brooks

Cast
Cliff Eyland
Guy Maddin

Official website:
http://www.adambrooks.net

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