Hot Docs 2008

In 1969 three young artists living in Toronto changed their names to Jorge Zontal, Felix Partz and AA Bronson, formed General Idea and quickly became "art stars" in an international movement that was transforming conventional ideas about art. Director Mangaard presents a tribute to their achievements through an in-depth interview with Bronson and extensive documentation of their work. Influenced by semiotics, conceptual art and mass-media obsessions with glamour and celebrity, they used parody, irony and camp to subvert the constructs of popular culture. Despite their Miss General Idea Pageants and self-portraits that scream gay camp, their sexual orientation was not publicly mentioned until they began to create their important body of work dealing with the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. The tragic AIDS-related deaths of Felix and Jorge in 1994 marked the end of GI as an artistic identity.
-Lynne Fernie

Co-presented with Art Metropole.