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ILONA, UPSTAIRS
-ABOUT THE FILM
-THE TEAM
-DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
-ILONA'S STORY
-TRAILER
-FISCAL SUPPORT
-PRAISE
WANDERLUST
-ABOUT THE FILM
-THE TEAM
-PRAISE
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DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Ilona, Upstairs is a portrait of an older artist, crafted by a younger one.
In 1998, when I moved into a studio in Manhattan’s West Village, I met my upstairs neighbor who quickly became a friend and a mentor. Over very small shots of coffee in tiny cups, we discussed the people and conundrums of our lives. Ilona’s vitality, candor, and inch-long eyelashes excited me, and because I had never met anyone like her, I wanted to introduce her to everyone.
The film I set out to make would tell the story of an older artist with a miserable childhood in Nazi Europe who learned to be happy. While filming, I assumed I would learn, under Ilona’s tutelage, to be happy too.
Filming geriatric bliss was easy – Ilona was constantly swimming, singing, painting, dancing or otherwise entertaining. Coaxing her to recount her troubling past was near impossible.
I knew Ilona had led a very rich life in the company of celebrities and artists. I knew she’d pioneered PBS’s first instructional painting shows. But I also knew Ilona was a lesbian and a Jew, which she dismissed as irrelevant.
Ilona, Upstairs was guided into its final incarnation based on what Ilona would not reveal as much as what she would. Her portrait is a study in negative space – or as Ilona says about her own work, “the maximum with the minimum.”
September 2004, NYC |
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