Painter Gino Hollander hates to explain his work, in fact, he says he’s not interested in any kind of a “dialogue with the viewer.” He paints and leaves the interpretation up to others. Gino says he tells no stories with his paintings, but lucky for filmmaker Jonathan Kloberdanz, Gino has lots of stories to tell about a life well lived. The two have come together, Hollander in the twilight of his career, and Kloberdanz at the beginning, to create a documentary on Hollander’s life and art. The film was designed to promote Gino’s art and to be part of his legacy left to his children, but along the way it became more. Two men, separated by some sixty years, took a journey together through the heady days of the Abstract Expressionist Movement in New York City to some less than settled parts of Spain to the clear air of the Rocky Mountains, and along the way the two developed a bond that went way beyond filmmaker and subject. It’s that personal connection that gives the film its grit.

Hollander is a character that has always lived life by his own rules. As a filmmaker himself in the 1950’s, he was inspired to move to painting, in part by the artistic revolution happening in New York City at the time. He hung out at the infamous Cedar Tavern, where many prominent painters – Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Franz Kline, just to name a few – were known to tip back a few. Hollander started painting and opened the first of many galleries. In 1962, he moved his family to Spain where he would spend the next 28 years painting and exploring.

Health issues forced a move back to the States in 1990, and Hollander landed in Aspen, Colorado. As a life long lover of the mountains – he was a member of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops in World War II – the Rocky Mountains seemed the perfect place to settle for the next leg of his life journey.

Hollanders painting style is by his own description undisciplined. It’s the physical act of painting that fuels his passion. The process is fun to watch – you can almost see the transference of energy from the painter to the canvas. At 84 years old, Hollander still spends most of his time in the studio.

Jonny Kloberdanz is a young filmmaker trying to build a career. He was introduced to Gino through a fellow filmmaker who was initially looking for an editor. Gino and Jonny hit it off, and with his Panasonic HVX200, Jonny spent months with Gino in and out of the studio. Kloberdanz posted the hours and hours of tape on YouTube, which Gino and he would then go over together. “He would write me these long emails – a lot of it gibberish because he hit the wrong keys, but I got to the point where I could decipher it. It was almost like our own language,” he laughs. But in the end he says, “Gino gave me a lot of freedom to cut the film they way I wanted to.”

With the film finished and cut to a succinct 54 minutes, Kloberdanz is moving on to new projects, but he will never fully leave this one. They may not be bound by blood, but they have developed a bond that will last. “He painted my sister,” says Jonny. “No one in the room was speaking. Gino told me I didn’t have to be quiet, but it just didn’t feel right to speak. For me it was a sacred moment.”

For more information or to see the entire documentary check out:

http://www.hollanderart.com/sitepages/pid14.php.

Written by: Erin Clark