SHOWTIMES:
Sun Apr 29 3:15 pm Landmark WTTS Screening Room

Umbrellas takes a poignant, in-depth look at the concept and realization of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project, "Umbrellas: Joint Project for Japan and U.S.A" presenting the artist at his most triumphant and most vulnerable moments - from the exaltation of the project's opening day through unexpected tragedies at the end.

The artists chose sites with contrasting cultures, among people who were unsophisticated about art; a rice-farming valley in the Japanese province of lbaraki, 72 miles north of Tokyo, and a cluster of cattle ranches in the rolling hills of southern California, 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude appealed to 29 land-owners in California, and a total of 485 people in Japan. In October 1991, as planned, 1,340 blue umbrellas unfurled in the dense green foliage and rain-dripped autumn light of the Japanese valley. On the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, the 1,760 yellow umbrellas burst open on dry, golden-colored grass, glimmering in brilliant California sunlight.

The film winds through the paddies and the pastures, showing rice farmers and cattle ranchers reacting with amusement, skepticism and intrigue - with weather becoming a forceful project participant. Umbrellas candidly presents the compelling personal reactions to a tragic death at the California site. Later, during the removal of the umbrellas, an electrical storm took the life of a Japanese construction worker. Like life itself, Christo's art has, in his own words, "a profound dimension of irrationality."