So Surreal: Behind the Masks searches for ceremonial pieces, at VIFF Centre to January 8

Part detective story, part art-history rethink, documentary travels from B.C.and Alaska to Paris to find stunning Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Yup’ik works that influenced Surrealists

By Janet Smith

Yup’ik artist Chuna McIntyre dances with masks in the halls of the Louvre in So Surreal: Behind the Masks.

So Surreal: Behind the Masks screens at VIFF Centre from December 27 to 30 and January 5, 6, and 8

A CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY STANDOUT from last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival is back for an extended run—and it’s worth catching for anyone who wants to rethink some of what they know about 20th-century art history.

So Surreal: Behind the Masks travels from Alert Bay to New York City to Paris on the trail of Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and Yup’ik sacred masks that once found their way into the hands of Surrealists like Max Ernst, André Breton, Roberto Matta, and Joan Miró. Now hanging in museums or hidden away in private collections, the ceremonial pieces had an integral influence on the works of those artists.

Codirected by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson (who made Reel Injun, Red Fever, and Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World), So Surreal becomes an engaging detective story. It follows Diamond as he sets out in search of such pieces as a Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw Raven Transformation Mask and tracks the complex, determined work of First Nations to repatriate ceremonial works lost during the potlatch-ban era.

One of the film’s highlights is watching Yup'ik dancer, storyteller, and singer Chuna McIntyre, in full regalia, reconnecting with his people's century-old masks in the hallowed halls of the Louvre. (You can read the filmmakers’ stories behind that shoot, and more, in the interview Stir did here when the documentary played at last fall’s VIFF fest.)

Most eye-opening of all, the film ensures you'll look at the dreamlike works of the Surrealists in new ways. It will also spark a new appreciation for the stunning masks of Alaska and the Northwest Coast—and a shift in perspective on the way the Western art world has defined "masters".  

---

Related Articles