Elanso

Last night's third-only screening of Aaron Rose's Beautiful Losers took place as part of AIGANY's Small Talks series, and seemed to be the hottest ticket in town. (Indeed, Debbie Millman's remark upon entering the space was that she could've sold her ticket for $100 many times over!) The film looks at a group of 90's artists, musicians, and filmmakers who collated around New York's legendary Alleged Gallery (weirdly, no Wikipedia entry as of this writing). Shining its light on Margaret Kilgallen, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, Shepard Fairey, Mike Mills, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Stephen Powers, Thomas Campbell, Jo Jackson, Ed Templeton, and Aaron Rose--with a fantastic score by Money Mark--Beautiful Losers presents each and every one of them as a most satisfying treat. You get excited when the camera makes return trips throughout the film ("oh great--more Harmony! Oh perfect--more Margaret!), and the overall craft and care of the thing belies the fact that this is is Aaron's first film. It's a heartwarming (and at times heartbreaking) movie, but in the end, this film is an artifact of absolute, undeniable life-affirmation. Honest--when the credits roll you want to watch it all over again, and it sends you out into the street believing in the power of creative expression and personal vision. Rose, during the post-screening Q&A, drove it home: "All we wanted was to make a film that would inspire people to go out and make things." He did.

(Above: beautiful, winning, poster by Keith Scharwath.)