‘CHRIS GOLLON: Life in Paint’ is the new feature-length documentary on the artist’s life and work, produced by Peter Dunphy and directed by Mark Calderbank (co-production from Stepping Stone Films & Shadowline Media). It features interviews with Thurston Moore, Maggi Hambling, Sara Maitland, as well as art historians and writers, and the leading musicians and composers Chris Gollon collaborated with.
Following the hugely successful World Premiere at the Barbican, London, in October 2024, it sold out and was screened again at The Garden Cinema, London WC2 in March 2025, and will have its American Premiere at the Nitehawk Cinema in New York on May 6th, with all screenings part of the Doc ‘n Roll Festival. Tickets for the New York Screening will be available in early April.
The 85-min film explores Gollon’s pioneering use of music to create new imagery; from lyrics by Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Talk Talk, to direct collaborations with musicians such as Yi Yao, Eleanor McEvoy and Thurston Moore, who states Gollon’s “creative and modest genius is eternal”. A sensitive and innovative painter of women, Gollon also expressed a powerful common humanity via his androgynous figures, and there has been a surge of interest in his work since his untimely death just seven years ago. Via found footage and BBC clips, the film shows Gollon disarmingly revealing his creative process and innovative techniques. Moving montages of Gollon’s images, combined with music by artists including The Skids, Gavin Bryars, Sleaford Mods, Yi Yao and Eleanor McEvoy, provide insights into how Gollon fused the two art forms, and how each energised and changed the other. More details, and trailer are here: Doc ‘N Roll Festival