Let me add my voice to those praising Kelvin Mao's wonderful documentary DAVE STEVENS: DRAWN TO PERFECTION.
The director managed to bring together a great many disparate pieces of source material, much of which was created for the film, but a good deal of which came archivally. Kelvin did this in such a way that it flowed seamlessly, which I did not think possible.
For Dave Stevens fans who are thinking "there is nothing new under the sun" when it comes to Dave's work, there are a number of art pieces which have never been reproduced in print that appear in the film.
I was amazed at how well the documentary managed to upgrade segments which I had seen many times before, like Greg Theakston's video interviews from the grainy results which are easily found and viewed online into quality video presentation.
I have to say, as one of the many folks who found Dave such a friendly and welcoming person, I was also brought to tears to see folks who I have talked to about Dave many times and who were much closer to Dave than I was choking up or coming to tears when relating their experience of Dave's final days. When William Stout was crying, so was I; when Jim Silke was choking up, tears were still running down my face. When John Koukoutsakis was finally able to give Dave a hug, it managed to give me some closure as well.
It was also touching to hear Billy (The Rocketeer) Campbell read a brief portion of Dave's journal.
This was truly a wonderful testimony to Dave's life and art, and I commend Rob Chatlin, Kelvin Mao, Christopher Ungar, and Robert Windom for producing such a marvelous film.
The director managed to bring together a great many disparate pieces of source material, much of which was created for the film, but a good deal of which came archivally. Kelvin did this in such a way that it flowed seamlessly, which I did not think possible.
For Dave Stevens fans who are thinking "there is nothing new under the sun" when it comes to Dave's work, there are a number of art pieces which have never been reproduced in print that appear in the film.
I was amazed at how well the documentary managed to upgrade segments which I had seen many times before, like Greg Theakston's video interviews from the grainy results which are easily found and viewed online into quality video presentation.
I have to say, as one of the many folks who found Dave such a friendly and welcoming person, I was also brought to tears to see folks who I have talked to about Dave many times and who were much closer to Dave than I was choking up or coming to tears when relating their experience of Dave's final days. When William Stout was crying, so was I; when Jim Silke was choking up, tears were still running down my face. When John Koukoutsakis was finally able to give Dave a hug, it managed to give me some closure as well.
It was also touching to hear Billy (The Rocketeer) Campbell read a brief portion of Dave's journal.
This was truly a wonderful testimony to Dave's life and art, and I commend Rob Chatlin, Kelvin Mao, Christopher Ungar, and Robert Windom for producing such a marvelous film.