The Legacy of Frida Kahlo

Director: Tadasuke Kotani
Producer: Kazuo Osawa

This documentary film is about a rare cultural dialogue between the living and the dead.The living, award winning photographer Miyako Ishiuchi (who represented Japan at the Venice Biennale) is invited by the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico to photograph the personal belongings of Mexico’s most celebrated female artist, Frida Kahlo. Acknowledged as a “surrealist” Kahlo’s reputation is notorious as much as for her art – which continues to smash auction records – as for her passionate lifestyle.

Locked away for 58 years hundreds of her personal belongings are brought out of storage to be shown in public for the first time. For Ishiuchi the objects are a puzzle and a key into the psyche and personality of Frida and also a spark to explore the culture of Oaxaca province which Frida lived and breathed.

In a country where death is celebrated with its own special day Ishiuchi’s lens brings the spirit of Frida’s past into vivid reality.

All Ages (exemption)
2015 | 90 minutes | United Kingdom | English