CHANUKAH EDITION
SECTION E PAGE 8
You cant accuse Denver-born and bred filmmaker Michael Sladek of dodging the big questions.
What is fame?
What is art?
What is wealth?
What is love?
Titanic questions, to be sure, but not too daunting for Sladek, who asked them, explored them and sometimes even answered them in Con Artist, the bio-documentary he conceived and directed and which, after spending a well-received year on the cinema festival circuit and a brief theatrical run, was just released as a commercial DVD.
Reviewed as excellent by the Hollywood Reporter, prickly by the Village Voice and entertaining by The New York Times, the documentary focuses on a fellow named Mark Kostabi, who was briefly but spectacularly famous in the 1980s and today, after being unofficially declared a pariah by the art community he once conquered, is desperately striving to make his way back to the top.
Con Artist is the second
feature-length film to be made by Sladeks New York-based firm, Plug Ugly Films, which he co-founded 11 years ago.
The son of longtime Denverites and Jewish community stalwarts Ossie and Selma Sladek, he became fascinated by Kostabi after meeting him a few years ago and working briefly as a cameraman on a self-produced game show that Kostabi was filming in his New York studio.
Not a veteran of New Yorks hyper-hip, punk and hip-hop driven art scene in the 1980s, Sladek had never before heard of Kostabi, or his notorious moment of art celebrity in the midst of that scene.
The rest of this article is available in the IJN’s print edition only. Contact Carol to order your copy at (303) 861-2234 or email [email protected].
