Provenance

Fulfillment is something I have more or less been thinking about as long as I have had the pleasure to call myself a filmmaker. Whether you make blockbuster pictures or stop motion videos with action figures, every director who looks through a lens does so in the pursuit of one thing, telling the exact story they want to. It's that very reason that I, like so many others, think about fulfillment through artistic accomplishment incessantly; Because not only is it the thing we are most valued through but it is simultaneously the most difficult thing to achieve.

This idea of fulfillment through artistry is one that is not exclusive to filmmaking by any means, it happens to be one of the most well documented self imposed pressures by artists in history. Van Gogh lost an ear to it, Warhol took a bullet for it, and Basquiat among many others never saw the other side of it. Although one thing they all have in common is while they were alive they were never able to escape the pursuit of it. This pursuit of fulfillment is what lays at the center of Provenance, our main character Rose looks for it through her painting while our second lead Roy does the same through his galleristic endeavors. While looking in opposite ends of the art world both are in desperate search of it which leads to both of their eventual missteps by the closing minutes in this story.

Early drafts of this script don't maintain the backdrop of Chicago but rather trade it for the palm trees and beaches of Miami Beach and specifically the Art Basel environment that takes over the city every year. Although draft after draft I found my mind venturing back to Chicago, my hometown, and a city that gave this story a level of inherent character that was missing from the less endearing and more established art world of Miami Beach. Trading light blue paint and plaster siding for walnut baseboards and two flats, Chicago and its uniquely beautiful setting adds a splash of appeal to this story through its distinct locations and opportunity for subversion through a kind of story that has never been told with this midwestern scope.

Provenance is a story that not only is supremely important to DaVinci Street Productions but to me, it is the most personal film I've written to date and it's the one I am most excited to bring to the silver screen. Chronicling the story of a once prodigal painter seeking retribution against her former thesis partner turned prominent gallerist through his purchase of one of the most infamously stolen paintings in history.