‘Am I Just Another White Woman Wanting Something Exotic?’

There’s something about celebrities adopting foreign kids that induces spontaneous eye-rolling in the best of us. Take Madonna and her Malawian child David, for example, or Brangelina and…who can keep track?

But far from passing judgment, filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly’s new doc, The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, examines overseas adoption in shades of grey.

The New Zealander follows Vanessa Beecroft – the art world equivalent of a Hollywood superstar – as she attempts to adopt twins Madit and Mongor Akot from an orphanage in Sudan. The film shows Beecroft throughout the process that begins in early 2006 and isn’t over before the artist comes up against a frustrating bureaucracy, questions her own motives, and watches as her marriage falls apart.

It’s a compelling snapshot of a woman who is driven and self-absorbed, but also caring and torn. And it’s a peek into the creative process of a provocative and notorious performance artist at the top of her game – and one who sees no line between life and art. In fact, the viewer comes out wondering whether the adoption is just another art project for Beecroft.

Brettkelly financed the film herself, using air miles to criss-cross the globe and shooting almost 70 hours of footage over the course of 16 months. She spoke to Beecroft’s Italian mother, English father, husband, gallery dealer – even her Jamaican nanny. It all paid off with a spot at the Sundance Film Festival.

What were your first impressions of Vanessa Beecroft?

When I initially met Vanessa Beecroft, I was [in Sudan] doing a film about landmines, and she was just a person at the camp we were staying in. And each night we’d meet up and say what we’d done that day. But really I just knew her as Vanessa, the performance artist, who was going to adopt these twins she was breastfeeding in the orphanage. When we left, I emailed her and said if you are going to proceed with the international adoption, I’d love to film that.

Beecroft comes off as both determined and self-absorbed in the film – do you think these are qualities she needed to become an art star?

It seemed to me she needed to have this incredible focus and strength of personality and drive to have achieved what she’s achieved – especially as a woman in [the international arts] community. Possibly for her, it’s been to the detriment of people [in] her life.  But it’s a pretty cutthroat industry she’s in.

Why do you think she wanted to adopt the twins?

I believe she really did care for those children. It was an honest and loving relationship she had with them – and very intense. She did believe she could offer them a better life. But she talks about how she doesn’t like this tied-up-with-a-bow-American-pie image of her family – you know, she was married and had two children and lived on Long Island. And certainly bringing two African children into that would have really shaken things up.

Why do you think she didn’t tell her husband about the adoption?

I think she honestly thought he would just agree to it. Vanessa is so driven that she has to get the yes all the time. But she was not entirely certain that adoption was the right thing either. She would ask us all the time, “Is this right, or am I just another white woman wanting something exotic?”

What are your feelings on international adoption?

I don’t think a blanket statement can be said whether it’s right or wrong. When you see these children in some of these situations, you just think, well why don’t they deserve a better life? But I wonder if this is the best that we can do because in the end people are better within their communities, within their family. They should not [be] extracted out to live on foreign shores. That has been and continues to be a form of colonialism.

But in the film, it’s not black and white.

I’d like people to watch my films and think for themselves. That’s what’s so interesting about the Q&As after the screenings. Some people completely sympathize with [Beecroft] and get her and really love her. And then there are others who are quite disgusted by certain actions. It really polarizes people.

The Art Star and The Sudanese Twins opens in Toronto on Friday.

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