iStudio premiers two docs in Cannes

MipDoc NEWS: Canadian-based company iStudio Distribution is premiering two new documentaries at MipDoc today.

Blockbuskers captures some of “the most spectacular street performances from Europe’s leading festivals dedicated to the art.”

While A Model for Matisse : The Story of the Vence Chapelunveils focuses on how the friendship between the 20th century artist Henri Matisse and a Dominican nun brought about the creation of the Vence Chapel.

Blockbuskers (2×52′) – covers street performers including acrobats, musicians, dancers, jugglers, actors and even pyrotechnicians.

In A Model for Matisse: The Story of the Vence Chapel”(1×52′) new light is shed on the creation of Henri Matisse’s Chapel du Rosaire in the village of Vence on the French Riviera, and his little-known friendship with the Dominican nun who was once his model.

In 1941, Monique Bourgeois was a 21-year-old nursing student and amateur-artist. She became Matisse’s nurse in Nice, as he was recovering from cancer surgery.

The film is produced and directed by Barbara Freed, professor of French and applied linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University in the US. She is the author of several books on the artists and museums of Southern France and translator of the book Sister Jacques-Marie had written about her longtime friendship with Matisse.

iStudio Distribution was launched in 2002. Based in Montreal it develops, produces and distributes television programmes, especially non-fiction and feature films.