There Are No Fakes (2019)

There Are No Fakes (2019)

The Tiger Kings of the Canadian art world

The Very Best

8.3

Movie

English
Documentary
2019
JAMIE KASTNER
113 min

What it's about

Norval Morrisseau was the first Indigenous Canadian artist to be taken seriously in the art world. By the turn of this century his work commanded tens of thousands of dollars. So when Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn learned his prized painting was a forgery, he sued. But as Jamie Kastner's doc reveals, there was a cottage industry in fake Morrisseaus, an industry that flourished unchecked for years, feeding on greed, exploitation, racism and contempt.

The take

The highly unusual story of this documentary starts with Kevin Hearn, a member of the band Barenaked Ladies, realizing that his painting by famous Canadian Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau is a fake. When he sues the collector he bought it from, he starts a series of inquiries that unravel a story that gets progressively darker: drug dealing, organized crime, addiction, sexual abuse, and completely crazy characters (reminiscent of Tiger King).

Behind all of that, There Are No Fakes is about the exploitation not only of Indigenous art but of Indigenous people in Canada in general.

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

More like this in

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

System Crasher (2019)

A tale of trauma and one of the most talked about movies on Netflix in 2020.

9.0

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Burning (2018)

The Complex South-Korean Award-Sweeper

7.7

Wild Tales (2014)

Co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar, this tumultuous Argentine anthology film tests the limits of human sanity when pushed to the extremes – and will also test yours.

9.9

Sound of Metal (2020)

Riz Ahmed excels in this piercing drama about a musician losing his hearing.

9.1

Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

A darkly hilarious portrait of the inevitability of death

7.9

The Edge of Democracy (2019)

Mixing personal history with hardcore journalism, this is the story of Brazil's fragile democracy.

9.0

Mommy (2014)

Aiming straight for the heart while punching you in the guts, Mommy is a crazy chamber piece about a widowed mother and her next-door neighbor bringing up a savage teenager

9.6

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.