Showing Up

This portrait of the artist as a working woman is as much an ode to the daily creative grind as it is to the creative partnership between director Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, MIFF 2020; Certain Women, MIFF 2016) and actor Michelle Williams.

Talented Portland sculptor Lizzy has a show opening in a week, but life keeps getting in the way of her work. Her divorced parents are dismissive but demanding; her brother is literally digging himself into a hole; her day job at the local arts college, where she reports to her mother, takes up too much time; and her cat has just mauled a pigeon. Worst of all, Lizzy needs a shower, but her nonchalant landlord (and fellow artist) Jo is too busy preparing for her two upcoming shows to fix the hot water!

Showing Up is the fourth collaboration from Reichardt and Williams, whose superb performance as the perpetually vexed Lizzy is matched by an equally sterling cast that includes Hong Chau (The Whale), Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans) and Broadway favourite Maryann Plunkett, alongside Outkast’s André 3000 and First Cow’s John Magaro in supporting roles. Working again with long-time writing partner Jonathan Raymond, Reichardt has crafted a film with wry, deadpan humour that is always warm, never mocking and grounded in her signature realism. Showing Up is that rare, charmingly honest work of art about the work of making art.

“A quiet, candid, sharply conceived and imaginatively realized masterwork … Bursts out with expansive creative energy that matches and redoubles the dramatic passion attached to its protagonist’s quests.” – The New Yorker

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Please note: The Sunday 20 August session can be booked as a Food & Film experience. Find out more here.