5:00PM SUNDAY 16 JUNE
When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob met French artist Apolonia Sokol in 2009, the latter appeared to have had a storybook life in the arts, having been born into an underground Parisian theatre group, raised within a community of artists and educated in her twenties at the prestigious Beaux-Arts de Paris.
But as Glob continued filming her friend while Apolonia sought her place in the art world, a far more complex story emerged. Thirteen years on, the women continue to reflect on each other’s paths in this captivating enquiry into art, love, sexuality, motherhood and representation. They also consider how women can succeed without compromising who they are at heart, in a world dominated by patriarchy, capitalism and war.
PRESENTED BY
Vintage Bazaar
CREDITS
Director
Lea Glob
Producer
Sidsel Lønvig Siersted
Protagonist
Apolonia Sokol
Duration
116 mins
“Apolonia, Apolonia observes how art isn’t a quick and dirty process, but rather something that evolves through time and experience”.
Pat Mullen, POV
“An astonishing art world documentary, probably the best of its kind since Exit Through the Gift Shop (about Banksie).”
Stephen Silver, The SS Ben Hect
“Director Lea Glob was gifted with the opportunity to follow the life of an esteemed artist in the making, to watch them create themselves in real time over years and realize that she is asking it of herself (and the price to be paid for it), as well.”
Joshua Starnes, Firing The Cannon
Filmmaker
Lea Glob
Graduated as a director from The National Film School of Denmark in 2011 with the short film MEETING MY FATHER-KASPER TOPHAT about the directors’ involuntary journey into a stranger than fiction story of her own origins.
Glob co-directed OLMO & THE SEAGULL with Petra Costa in 2014. It premiered at Locarno where it won the Young Jury Prize. It also won the Best Nordic Dox Award at CPH:DOX, Best Documentary at the Rio Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Cairo Film Festival, and Best Narrative at the RiverRun International film festival, among others.
In 2016 Glob co-directed the feature documentary VENUS together with Mette Carla Albrechtsen about sexuality from a female perspective, which became a moment to share thoughts on sexuality and identity, in an attempt to formulate a language and reclaim the female body. The film premiered in IDFA’s First Appearance Competition and won the audience award in IndieLisboa IIFF.
All along those years Glob followed the story of Apolonia Sokol, creating a sort of double sided portrait of the artist as a young woman. APOLONIA, APOLONIA is the director’s first documentary feature as a solo-director.
Protagonist
Apolonia Sokol
Born in 1988 in Paris, Apolonia Sokol is a French figurative painter of Danish and Polish descent. After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, she moved to the United States and settled in New York where she worked in Dan Colen’s studio. She later moved to Los Angeles where she befriended other artists and painters with whom she started an ongoing conversation on figurative painting.
Sokol is known for her political stance on the art of portraiture, claiming the need to use it as a tool of empowerment and deconstruction of marginalisation and domination. That is why she addresses multiple issues such as feminisms, queerness, women’s representation throughout art history and body politics in general.
Her recent institutional exhibitions include Possessed curated by Vincent Honoré at the MOCO Museum and Conversation Piece VII Verso Narragonia (Towards Narragonia) curated by Marcello Smarrelli at the Fondazione Memmo in Rome, Women Painting Women at The Modern, Forth Worth, Texas USA and Women in Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
In 2020, the artist was granted the prestigious Academy of France in Rome, enabling the artist to benefit from a one year residency at the Villa Medici.
The Festival at a glance
Friday 14 June
Theatre Royal
5:00pm
Music from Brazazul
a beautiful moment
Ag Fab: From Paddock to Catwalk
7:30pm
Acknowledgement of Country
8:00pm
WINHANGANHA and Q&A
9:30pm
Drinks at Love Shack
Saturday 15 June
Theatre Royal
11:00am
Obsessed with Light
2:00pm
Starring Jerry as Himself
5:00pm
LOCALS
8:00pm
Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande
9:30pm
Party with The Afrobiotics at Theatre Royal
Sunday 16 June
Theatre Royal
11:00am
The Gullspång Miracle
2:00pm
The Koalas and Q&A
5:00pm
Apolonia, Apolonia
8:00pm
The Road to Patagonia
9:30pm
Drinks at Love Shack
FILMS & GAMES IN THE YURT
On the Western Reserve
SATURDAY 15 June
11:30am
Kids on the Silk Road: Girl away from home {film} and The Monkey King {film}
1:00pm
Werewolves {game}
4:00pm
a beautiful moment {film}
7:00pm
Werewolves {game}
SUNDAY 16 June
11:30am
Kids on the Silk Road: Bird Boy {film} and Girl with goals {film}
1:00pm
Werewolves {game}
4:00pm
Ag Fab: From Paddock to Catwalk {film}
5:00pm
Werewolves {game}