“When Judy finishes a piece it’s quite easy. She goes finished (claps hands together) and she pushes it at you, and that’s the end of it. And she doesn’t want it back, and she’ll go start a new one, and the baby’s off into the world by itself.”
Tom di maria, Director of creative growth art center
Judith Scott is one of the greatest outsider artists of all-time. Creative Growth is one of the greatest institutions around doing so much fantastic work. So bring them together and what do you have, a must-watch documentary called “What’s Under My Hat?”.
This is possibly the best inside look at the inner workings of Creative Growth and Judith Scott’s time there. Told by her sister who helped introduce Judith Scott to Creative Growth and helped garner her creative genius. Everyone should know about Judith Scott and watch this documentary. Come for Judith Scott, stay for Chocolate City. Or her stealing a shoe! Or her looking so incredibly happy celebrating her birthday! Oh this film is so good. Please enjoy!
What do you have under the hat?’ tells the life of Judith Scott, a 62-year-old American sculptor who gains international recognition after living 36 years in a psychiatric institution. Judith has Down Syndrome and is deaf and mute. Her story, told through her twin sister, Joyce, without a disability, is the trigger for a film that travels to the Creative Growth Art Center in California and discovers other characters like Judith who seek to express themselves through art. ‘What do you have under the hat?’ It is a reflection on the isolation that a disability can cause, and on how communication can be restored through art. After making this documentary, the co-director Lola Barrera conceived UNDER THE HAT, a platform for the creation, research, production and dissemination of art where its main protagonists are people with intellectual disabilities. His workshops take place in spaces that allow learning and dialogue with other artists, as well as carrying out both individual and collective projects. UNDER THE HAT is a national non-profit association declared of Public Utility.
Directed by Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel
Check out a more comprehensive, perhaps even the greatest list of outsider art must-watch documentaries.
Film Friday Films:
- WATCH: William Hall: Keep Drawing
- WATCH: Kea’s Ark
- WATCH: My Psychic Gift: The Life and Art of Ljerka Cairn
- WATCH: The Castle Builder
- WATCH: It Started With a Horse (M.T. Liggett)
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