Times Colonist

Filmmaker is a Fox with Many Faces: Victoria Times-Colonist Review of THE SKIN I’M IN

“PART OF THIS FILM IS ME TRYING TO LINK MY HEAD BACK UP TO MY BODY,” SAYS FOX.

MICHAEL D. REID

TIMES COLONIST

JANUARY 30, 2013

BOX OFFICE

What: The Skin I’m In

Where: Vic Theatre

When: Saturday, 9:30 p.m.

Rating: Four stars (out of five)

Broderick Fox never imagined he might someday be mistaken for Antonio Banderas.

Online searches for his documentary The Skin I’m In, which makes its Canadian première at the Victoria Film Festival, often yield references to The Skin I Live In. In that twisted thriller directed by Pedro Almodovar, Banderas plays a sinister plastic surgeon who holds a beautiful woman captive to test a synthetic alternative to human skin he’s perfecting.

Fox’s unflinching low-tech reflection on years of bodily shame, addiction and other issues that inspired him to transform his body into a living canvas seems worlds apart from Almodovar’s sleek, creepy meditation on beauty. But a Spanish film scholar who once mentored Fox noted the films resonate in similar ways, he said.

Both, for instance, explore the nature of identity. In Fox’s case, it was the spiritual and sexual ramifications of identity that would unite him with Rande Cook, the Victoria-based First Nations artist who created the full-back tattoo that memorializes Fox’s experiences.

“There are a lot of people who might write the film off as narcissistic,” admits Fox, 38, who worked on his project for six years and titled it early on. Read full article here.

Rande Cook’s Netherlands Totem Collaboration Covered in The Times Colonist

First Nations artist Rande Cook, here at his studio on Bridge Street in Victoria, was selected from an open call to artists from bands across the Pacific Northwest to participate in an exhibition in the Netherlands. Photograph by: Lyle Stafford, timescolonist.com — First Nations artist Rande Cook, here at his studio on Bridge Street in Victoria, was selected from an open call to artists from bands across the Pacific Northwest to participate in an exhibition in the Netherlands.
Photograph by: Lyle Stafford, timescolonist.com

Check out the Tmes Colonist article on Rande by Amy Smart: “Totem goes Dutch: Victoria-based carver’s work part of First Nations exhibit in the Netherlands”

An excerpt:

Kwakwaka’wakw history – from the mass loss of art during the potlatch ban in the 1880s through persistent poverty on reserves – is all connected in his art. But at the same time, Cook is conscientious of defining his own voice and moving across traditional boundaries that have separated First Nations art from others.

“I push myself, not only to create my own distinctive style, but to continue to tell stories – stories of today,” he said. “I want to connect with the rest of the world.