The documentary traces the life of the king of American pop art, from his birth to a family of Rusyn emigrants to his death surrounded by his glamorous entourage.
The main icon of the bohemian New York of the 1960s and 1970s, a tirelessly sociable but forever lonely man hiding behind his photo camera, wig, and glasses—this is how many remember Andy Warhol. But the biopic by Slovak director Lubomir Slivka, based primarily on the memories of Warhol’s nephews James and Donald Warhola, shows him from a different angle. Most of the film is devoted to Warhol’s childhood and roots: the village in Eastern Slovakia where his mother and close friend Julia grew up; the Rusyn community in America and Warhol’s experience of religion; his early interest in fan art and comics, which were Andy’s source of entertainment as he spent days at home ill, and their connection to commercial illustration and the making of prints. Although Warhol used to say that he came «from nowhere, ” the film shows that his «outsidedness» was one of his mythmaking strategies. The film does not debunk the myth, but shows the unglamorous side of the superstar artist’s life.
The film will be screened in Slovak and English with Russian subtitles.
Director: Lubomir Slivka
Slovakia, 2023. 104 min.
16+