JOEL-PETER WITKIN, THE INDELIBLE IMAGE
COPYRIGHT 1994
DIRECTOR: Jérôme de MISSOLZ
FORMAT: 16 mm colour
DIFFUSION: 16mm or BETA SP
DURATION: 52 minutes
TYPE: Documentary
VERSIONS: English and French (subtitles)
PRODUCTION: ARTE, Paris Audiovisuel, Le Centre Georges Pompidou, Lieurac Productions.
PARTICIPATION: Centre National de la Cinématographie, Procirep, Direction des Arts Plastiques

The disabled, maimed, deformed, demented, the debris of humanity, such is the matter that inspires the American photographer Joel-Peter Witkin to create a work that is both rigourous and visionary.
This film questions the way we observe. It questions our fears, our references, our judgement of what is beautiful or ugly, what is normal or abnormal, what is acceptable or inacceptable, what is or is not art.

"My need is to understand existance. That need becomes art when it reaches into the extreme limit of the impossible"
Joel-Peter Witkin

Prix de la Création de l'office national du film du Canada 1994 at Festival International du Film sur l'Art, Montréal.