Stephen Offord

‘Art Show.Why Bother?’ is a theatrical documentary about a documentary. The original documentary, The Art Show, is 147 minutes and follows my 9 month preparation for an art show in my townhome. It features myself and 6 fellow physicians who participated in the event. ’Art Show. Why Bother?’ is a story about that original documentary. I am with my therapist, Dana, (who is my real therapist), and I am fast forwarding through the original documentary. I am trying to understand why I keep overdoing everything (even as I actively edit my documentary). She uses psychotherapy to help me gain self-awareness. I was inspired to do the original documentary because I thought people might like to see a renovation-style documentary about people preparing for an art show. I was inspired to do ‘Art Show. Why Bother?’ because I thought people might like to see what drives people to behave the way they do.

Original Documentary: The original documentary, The Art Show, was conceived as an unfolding. It would follow mine and my colleagues 9 month preparation for the art show. Along the way we would learn a little bit about each other and get updates on our projects. I have been doing art shows for many years. What began in coffee shops evolved to formal tours of of my town home, each room a different exhibit. In 2021 I decided to document my ‘most epic art show ever.’ I brought that vision to life by giving everything I had. In addition to building the exhibits, I did 50 paintings for 50 colleagues. I also was the sole source of funds and enlisted all the participants. Art Show. Why Bother? My creative vision for this film was to make the original film tighter and lend depth, tension and humor.

John Dorflinger: He filmed and edited the original version, The Art Show. John is a patient film maker and truly let it unfold. The original film is vibrant, tasteful and personal. Two of the participants, Tahera’s grandparents, have since passed and I am grateful for how Jon honored them.

Jesse Matilus: He was my creative partner and editor for this film, Art Show.Why Bother?While this film is also about the preparation for the art show, it goes much deeper and delves into why none of us cannot escape ourselves. My style of collaboration is to grant as much creative and financial freedom as I possibly can so that each can deliver their best effort.

The biggest challenge was the re-edit. The original film was 147 minutes and that was compressed into 57 minutes while retaining the shape of the original. The re-edit was a particular challenge because I was actively in therapy to let things go and I was completely out of money. The stress of everything lead to a small stroke in 2023. After the original film was completed (2023) I opted not release it. While I felt that it had artistic integrity, from a dramatic standpoint it was too long and lacked tension and humor. So the re-edit was a doubling down on a risky investment while out of funds and while learning to let go. I did it by taking a risk and believing in my vision.

(i) Ayesha’s song. She is my colleague and runs Palliative Care at the hospital. She learned to sing, play guitar and write an original song in 9 months. And she shared everything. I chose her because I knew her drive would overcome her inexperience.

(ii) Bill Pyle’s musical piece, The Tempest. I backed myself into a corner by boasting that Tahera’s (my now wife’s) painting would be ’50 times’ better than the other 49. So I manifested (on film) that Bill Pyle’s original music would signal the universe to assist me in this painting.

(iii) Bob Hayes’ cartoon: Bob is my boss so to prove I am smarter than him I attempted to predict exactly what caption he would write for a cartoon I drew.

(iv) Dottie Kopf’s journal: Dottie and Alfred Kopf are Tahera’s grandparents and were both 95 at the time of filming. I discovered that Dottie kept a 1 page journal for every year that they have been married (72 and counting). She was kind enough to lend me the journal me and I made it one of my signature exhibits.

(v) Sergio Lema’s song for his wife: Sergio (who become my next boss) was an established musician in Bolivia before choosing medicine in the US. He wrote a beautiful song to celebrate his wife.

And there were others. My point is that at times during the show’s preparation there was a magical quality to our collective efforts. The film has stayed with all of us.

I chose to dive in and work out the details out later. That was what kept an artsy film sincere and a little unpredictable.The downside was that without a specific vision is was a bigger challenge to define what this film is really about. That was left to the universe. So I would not have done anything differently but suffice to say that without a vision going in, let go of expectations.

Tahera’ nude photo shoot: Tahera (my now wife) emigrated from Tanzania from a conservative Muslim family. She is also open about her struggles with weight loss. She agreed to a nude photo shoot which was filmed live. The photo shoot generated the photo I used for her painting (and for which I enlisted Bill Pyle’s music). So it illustrates that even one exhibit proved to be fairly layered and tested the creative limits of all involved.

I am not in a position to give anyone advice. I will only say that with the re-edit in particular, I tried to just make a film I would like to see. Because if you like it, chances are others will.

Doctors can be difficult volunteers for anything but especially artsy stuff. At least in the US, they tend to be reserved and have their basic needs met already. So there wouldn’t be any rational reason to suffer even a tiny risk of reputation for a project that could show them in a poor light. I am honored that they trusted me and did my best to celebrate each one.

The film has an original score composed by Jason Brown. Again, I gave Jason full creative freedom because I banked that would produce his best effort. The closing song for the credits is a cover of ‘You Make my Life Come True’ by one of my favorite bands, The Roches. It was performed by Laura Johnson (one of Ayesha’s instructors).

The original documentary, The Art Show, was too dramatically limited overall to make a festival run. This film better captures not just the beauty of the art show but the fire behind it. So in this instance I handled criticism by re-imagining the film. I do my best to handle criticism by learning from it and making my project better.