Taking Venice

AMEI WALLACH
USA, 2023
98 minutes, Color and Black & White
Official website

In Person:
Saturday, April 20: Producers Andrea Miller and Tal Mandil
Sunday, April 21: Producer Andrea Miller and Cultural Diplomat Edward McBride

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government is determined to fight communism with culture. The Venice Biennale, the world's most influential art exhibition, becomes a proving ground in 1964. Alice Denney, Washington insider and friend of the Kennedys, recommends Alan Solomon, an ambitious curator making waves with trailblazing art, to organize the U.S. entry. Together with Leo Castelli, a powerful New York art dealer, they embark on a daring plan to make Robert Rauschenberg the winner of the Grand Prize. The artist is yet to be taken seriously with his combinations of junk off the street and images from pop culture, but he has the potential to dazzle. Deftly pulling off maneuvers reminiscent of those in a Hollywood thriller, the American team leaves the international press crying foul and Rauschenberg questioning the politics of nationalism that sent him there.—Various sources