The Colour of Ink | Brian D. Johnson
The screening of the film "The Color of Ink" has been postponed by a day, from Friday morning, January 31st, to the following day, Saturday, February 1st, at 11:00 AM.
Ink is our primordial medium – it has recorded the evolution of humanity. The film ‘The Color of Ink’ is a poetic and chemical journey, revealing the mystery and power of the medium through the eyes of Jason Logan, a visionary ink maker. Working with ingredients he collects in nature – weeds, berries, tree bark, flowers, rocks, rust – he makes ink from almost anything and sends custom-ordered inks to an eclectic range of artists around the world, from a New York caricaturist to a Japanese calligrapher whose work is a stirring blend of words, illustration, ink and movement. He also visits some of them, such as an artist who creates ochre colors from rocks, or indigenous artists who make red color from beetles in Mexico (he sends the red ink he produces to Margaret Atwood, creator of "The Handmaid's Tale", who draws women in red dresses for him). When the ink and the colors he sent take on a life of their own, his playful alchemy paints a story of color that reconnects us to the earth and returns us to a childlike sense of wonder. A film that delights in the sensuality of ink, in the way it is absorbed by paper, mixes with other colors, influences them, seeps into them, arouses a passion for chemistry, or alchemy and above all, it is a song of praise for craft, for deliberateness, for wonderful control of materials, for the simplicity of creation and life.
The film joins a common movement that is growing worldwide, to revive analog media and natural paint, not only as a nostalgic act – in a digital age, when the line between truth and lies has become so slippery, there is a yearning for the indelible substance of ink and the tangible connection of the language of handicraft. Throughout civilization, ink has remained our most enduring documentation, a fossilized human consciousness. And in its quick radiance, one can discover the magic of a medium that still binds us like nothing else – a stamp of authenticity in an age of binary code.
Director: Brian D. Johnson
Canada 2022 | 105 Minutes | English Japanese and Spanish | Hebrew subtitles
