Scooter LaForge: A Life of Art

Ethan pinged me the other day to see if I would watch his new documentary about artist, Scooter LaForge.

"Sure, I'd be happy to!" As always.

It took several days to finish my current project and finally get around to viewing his latest film.

A few minutes into the film I remembered why Ethan's one of my favorite documentary filmmakers, realizing I should have put it on sooner.

A "creative" documenting another "creative", an artist making a film about another artist, doesn't have to be the best art documentary you've seen. But in Ethan's case for some reason, it always is. As I've lived in both places, Scooter's life in New York City and his connections to the southwest, resonated with me. His time in San Francisco are also quite interesting, as is his personal history at large.

With Scooter LaForge as his subject, you discover he's one of the greatest artists you've never heard of. Although many have. Especially other artists.

Huffington Post: "I BRAKE FOR SCOOTER LAFORGE." For good reason and I thank them for that.

Here's the esteem I hold Ethan in as a filmmaker. In 2022 I produced a WWI documentary/art film that won a lot of awards around the world.

I can't help now but watch Ethan's film and imagine how much better my film would be, had he also worked on it.

If you like Art, or are striving to be an Artist, one thing you always learn from Ethan's films is there's a lot going on out there you just don't know about.

So if you love Art, if you love Unique Characters, if you love stories told about them in creative and engaging ways? Definitely check out Ethan Minsker's.

"Scooter LaForge, a life of art"!

Scooter LaForge: A Life of Art is an incredible documentary. I saw the trailer for this and knew I was going to have to watch this. I was not disappointed.

It was great listening him talk about his life and his art.

I loved hearing him talk about some of his different art pieces. His work is absolutely incredible. I hope to see an art show of his sometime.

There isn't a single part of this documentary that isn't enjoyable. I love the way they shot this, especially the stop motion they added in, it was very creative.

This documentary is very inspiring to any artist, but can also inspire anyone. Be sure to watch this one, you will not be disappointed.

A well told documemtary about an artist and the obsticles he had to face throught out his life time personally and as an artist. Nice stylized approach to telling this story. I enjoyed the cool graphics, CGI and the nice transitions. The narration was also well spoken. It was interesting hearing a different perspective about the time frame of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's. I am sorry to hear that so many of his friends died during that time as a result. I remember growing up in this era and hearing about this disease. However, the interviewees were well spoken and charasmatic.

There is one takeaway, that I will keep with me and that I totally agree with, is when Scooter prefffered that people give him an honest critique about his art. I feel the same way.

I knew some about the artist before watching this doc, but knew more about the director (had seen other art docs by him). I came away with a new appreciation for the art Scooter does and for the way a director can match the energy of a subject. Both are vibrant, colorful and fun - in the same way that Scooter's art is playful (but with a point), the doc techniques were the perfect mirror to it. No interviews felt like throwaways, the bright animation used to illustrate talking points gave it added interest and I could see myself wanting to watch docs on a few of the side characters in this too.

A refreshingly stylized documentary on an incredible artist. Minsker injects his visual style and a "wall of sound" that drives the storytelling in a compelling and entertaining way. Many documentaries can rely too much on talking heads, but Minsker uses them in a balanced way along with interviews with LaForge and captures the artist as he rises in prominence in the New York art world.

It doesn't linger long on LaForge's early days growing up or time in San Francisco, but gives you enough to understand where he came from.

I was fortunate to see the documentary in an old opera house at the 7th annual Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival in Pennsylvania.