Film about Wilf Perreault

Jan Zarzycki and Wilf Perreault at MacKenzie Art Gallery

On Wednesday night we went to a screening of a film commissioned by the MacKenzie Art Gallery called "The Alley Man" about Wilf Perreault  byJan Zarzycki. I have to admit that I went to the event with low expectations. Films about artists, especially those which are commissioned by a gallery rather than those with are rooted in the filmmaker, tend to be pedantic. I expected a few interviews and some pans over his artwork, perhaps intercut with shots of him painting or walking around a neighborhood or two. Well, actually that was what the film contained, but it did it in ways which expressed both the beauty and the humour behind WIlf and his work. The stage was set with a fantastic shot of Wilf in an alley as the camera rises above his head, showing him within the surrounding in the way he paints it. The camera continues to rise, and rise, and rise. "Is this a crane shot?" I asked myself.  There are tree and power lines everywhere so it would require great care to undertake such a shot .... far beyond the scope of this film. Afterwards, Jan revealed that the shot was done courtesy of a borrowed drone carrying a GoPro camera. It was very cool.