NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum is pleased to present the US theatrical premiere of Andrey M Paounov’s Walking on Water beginning Friday, May 17. Christo and his late wife/partner Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) created some of the most visually breathtaking art installations of the postwar era, including Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties (1976), Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (1995), and The Gates in Central Park (2005). The Floating Piers – an ambitious effort to create the effect of walking on water via a 3-kilometer walkway over Lake Iseo in Northern Italy – is Christo’s first large-scale project since Jeanne-Claude’s passing (the two conceived of the idea together). Bulgarian filmmaker Paounov has rare access to Christo’s process, from inception to completion. Thorny negotiations with local officials, engineering challenges, crowd control (1.2 million visitors), logistical nightmares, and the sheer force of nature are all captured through breathtaking aerial views and fly-on-the-wall cameras.
Walking On Water will open Friday, May 17 for an ongoing engagement at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street (West of 6th Avenue), with screenings daily at 12:30, 2:35, 4:45, 7:00, & 9:15. Presented with support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund
“Few artists deserve the moniker ‘maverick’ as much as Christo, and few documentarists are as attuned to the intersection of visual delight and strong personality as Andrey Paounov (THE BOY WHO WAS A KING)… WALKING ON WATER chronicles Christo’s glorious 2016 project in which he unfurled a golden path across Lake Iseo in northern Italy, designed to let people literally stride across the gently undulating surface. The artist’s forceful character does battle with technology, bureaucracy, corruption and the elements, resulting in an installation of stunning beauty and a documentary that delights in capturing the act of creation.”– Jay Weissberg, Variety
“Rollicking. Christo is his own force of nature. The 83-year-old Christo strikes a fascinating figure, a tireless, uncompromising artist who thinks his work is, on the one hand, totally useless, but shows childlike joy when things finally work out.”– Mark Peranson, Cinema Scope
Walking On Water (2018, 100 minutes) Directed by Andrey M Paounov. Produced by Valeria Giampietro & Izabella Tzenkova. Editor: Andrey M Paounov & Anastas Petkov. Composers: Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans. Featuring Christo, Vladimir Yavachev & Wolfgang Volz. In English and Italian with English subtitles. USA / Italy. A Kino Lorber release.
