REED: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ROY KIYOOKA

Northwest Tracking

REED: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ROY KIYOOKA
DIRECTOR: FUMIKO KIYOOKA
CANADA, 2010

Made by his daughter, REED is a portrait of the celebrated Japanese-Canadian artist and teacher Roy Kiyooka (1926-1994) and the bohemian subculture of artists and writers who nurtured and challenged him. A member of the Beat generation, Kiyooka rose to prominence in the 1960s as a seminal force in the New York School of painting with his critically acclaimed “hard-edge” paintings. Then, at the peak of his career, filled with the Bushido spirit of the Samurai, he gave up painting to become a poet in the tradition of the monk Basho, as well as taking up photography and music. Writer Michael Ondaatje described Kiyooka as a “reed, receptive to every nuance in you.” (94 mins.)