REST IN PIECES: A PORTRAIT OF JOE COLEMAN

SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER AT 10:15PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 2

Country USA/Austria Running Time 94 mins Format 35mm Director Robert Pejo Producer Florian Michel Exec Prods Heinz Stussack, Michael Seeber Screenplay Walt Michelson DoP Wolfgang Lehner Featuring Joe Coleman, Jim Jarmusch, Hasil Adkins Print Source Gary Baddeley T +1 212 691 1605 F +1 212 473 8096

Joe Coleman's artwork runs the marathon between grotesquely disturbing and horrifyingly detailed and as the film RIP: Rest In Pieces depicts, so does his life. The documentary, directed by Romanian filmmaker Robert Pejo contains anecdotes ranging from the absurd, to the shocking to the essentially unbelievable. He captures in real time the inspirations behind Coleman's macabre masterpieces only delved into elsewhere in books such as Original Sin and most recently The Book of Joe. Coleman's life is a vaudevillian drama filled with a bizarre cast of characters including his 'adopted son' Junior: a pickled baby in a jar. RIP takes us through Coleman's early days of blowing himself up on stage for performance art to the quieter hours of his life as a well respected painter. His works have been compared by many to Hieronymus Bosch and even Salvador Dali. The surreal aspects of his artwork translate almost fully to the stories of his bizarre or if nothing else eccentric lifestyle. RIP plays out like more of a Todd Browning 1930s horror film than it does a documentary and, in the end, Coleman is both the brooding, disfigured monster and the classic bitter-sweet hero. RR

Director Robert Pejo was born in Arad, Romania and made his directorial debut at 22 in 1986 with Crescendo. He has directed over 15 films and is currently shooting his latest project in Hungary.