Finlay Pretsell’s Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon Shines at Berlinale

Finlay Pretsell’s Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon Shines at Berlinale

Finlay Pretsell’s Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon premiered at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival to great applause from critics and filmlovers.

Standing (left to right): Nadja Lapcevic, CJ Mirra, Holly Elson, Sonja Henrici, Martin Radich, Finlay Pretsell, Kieran Gosney, Estelle Robin You, Alexandre Widmer, Luke W. Moody, Will Anderson | Kneeling(left to right): Yassine Mouaffak, Jon Bruce, Isabel Davis, Joseph Petitpain, Sam Payne, Elise Kravets

The film is an intimate portrait of the celebrated Douglas Gordon set almost entirely within his Berlin studio. Through spontaneous actions and candid conversation, he reveals his inner world, offering audiences rare insight into his creative process, and blurring the boundary between reality and performance.

'...as close as you can come to watching a major artist in full flow.'
Geoffrey Macnab Business Doc Europa

According to Atrakcia’s  Martin Razhdashki, Douglas Gordon by Douglas Gordon was the most significant film at the Berlinale. In the critic’s words, ‘the film captivated my senses and left me inconsolably excited. It introduced me to the man and his soul, to Douglas Gordon, who has turned himself into his life’s work… Finlay Pretsell elegantly, generously, and perceptively cedes part of the authorship of the film to its subject… In a world of false identities and manipulation, the film possesses a captivating innocence. Finlay Pretsell’s film is a gift to humanity.’ (Atrakcia)

In his interview on Radioeins’s Berlinale Talk, Pretsell explained that his first experience of Douglas Gordon was through his critically acclaimed film Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait. Inspired by the film and Douglas’ other jobs, Pretsell decided to make  a portrait about the artist.

'He performs, he calls his mother, he sings Scottish songs, he talks about the responsibility towards parents and sister and brother(s?) and children, blowing bubbles – there is something honest, fragile and beautiful in these scenes...'
Tue Steen Müller Filmkommentaren

‘Finlay Pretsell’s artist portrait is an abrasive, confrontational piece of documentary filmmaking which reframes our perception in the spirit of its subject… Decidedly low-fi, loud, brash and clearly intentionally chaotic but with a clear narrative arc (crafted by editor Kieran Gosney)… Much like his art, the movie reframes our perception of the artist but also of biographical documentary filmmaking.’ Vladan Petković (Cineuropa)

'The film is first and foremost a polite and sensitive ray of light shining on those common light and dark aspects of our existence that we do not know how to care for and pay attention to.'
Domenico Spinosa Close Up

Ute Thon noted that ‘Finlay Pretsell has succeeded in creating a painfully intimate portrait of the famous artist. The focus is not on his great successes, but on small, telling details—a touch of gold dust on his face makes an entire life tangible… This gives the project an extra touch of cinéma vérité. And it’s also pretty funny. In an age when artists’ biographies are carefully curated like lifestyle magazines and every sound bite is controlled, every interview is edited and polished countless times, this prickly beast of a documentary seems all the more refreshing. It is also an extremely courageous and self-confident undertaking for a filmmaker who previously made documentaries about extreme athletes.’ (Critic.de)

'In truth, the film is less about Douglas Gordon's art and more about the man Douglas becoming the work himself. Despite being a lifestyle that’s hard for ordinary people to understand, the film resonates deeply.'
Kim Hyo-jeong Hankyung
'The way he [Douglas] talks, the way he thinks about himself, his family, his work, the art world, and the associated associations and ideas—that is the real event.'
Daniela Kloock Art-in-Berlin

Thomas Abeltshauser of Berliner Morgenpost wrote that the film ‘captures the fascination that Gordon inspires and the price his environment pays when work and life become indistinguishable. The decisive tension arises from the question of who is actually staging whom here. And how much autonomy a portrait can tolerate when the subject himself is a master of framing.’

Sonja Henrici, Estelle Robin You
When Gordon then starts singing Scottish folk songs with a voice that is simply stunning, these are moments of authenticity and directness, and, as far as I'm concerned, sentimentality, that hardly any film at the BERLINALE has achieved so far.
Daniela Kloock Art-in-Berlin

The film is produced by Sonja Henrici and Finlay Pretsell, and co-produced by Estelle Robin You. It is being distributed by Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales GmbH.

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