First off, you can watch it online, no sweat. Supposedly the *official* place is on YouTube, I saw someone mention a link that looks legit: https://youtu.be/vGB0bwrNaJU. But, y’know, the internet is the internet, so keep your wits about you and maybe run some virus scans after, just in case.
Right, the movie itself. The whole thing kicks off when Kevin Hearn, the keyboardist from Barenaked Ladies (yeah, the “One Week” guys!), buys a painting. He thinks he’s snagged a genuine Norval Morrisseau, a super famous Indigenous artist. But… plot twist! Turns out, it’s a fake. And not just any old fake, like some cheap knock-off you’d find at a flea market. This thing looks REALLY good. Like, good enough to fool experts good.
That’s where things get wild. The doc starts digging into this whole world of fake art, and it’s HUGE. I mean, like, “holy crap, is anything real anymore?” huge. Apparently, there’s this whole cottage industry of pumping out fake Morrisseau paintings and selling them for big bucks. And it’s not just a few bad apples either. This is a whole SYSTEM, man.
Now, I gotta be honest, the doc kinda jumps around a bit. It follows Hearn’s journey, but also delves into the history of Morrisseau, the art market, and the really shady characters involved in this forgery ring. It’s a bit…scattered. Like, I sometimes felt like I needed a whiteboard and a bunch of red string to keep track of everything. But that kinda adds to the intrigue, right? Makes it feel like you’re actually uncovering something messy and complicated.
One thing that really got to me was the ethical side of things. It’s not just about money, though there’s plenty of that involved. It’s about exploiting an artist’s legacy, disrespecting Indigenous culture, and just generally being a bunch of jerks. And honestly, the fact that these fakes are SO convincing makes it even worse. How do you even *know* what’s real anymore? It messes with your head, ya know?
The documentary doesn’t really offer a neat and tidy conclusion either. It’s more like, “Here’s a giant pile of dirt we dug up, good luck figuring out what to do with it.” Which, again, feels pretty real. There’s no easy answer to this problem. And maybe that’s the point.
