Our documentary Chasing Monsters, Parkinson’s and the Power of Art will be screened at the LA Awareness Film Festival, to be held virtually from Oct. 1 to 11, 2020. The festival, run by a charity, is designed both to raise funds for a culturally diverse community in Los Angeles and to “inform and inspire audiences through a program of films on Ecological, Political, Health/Well Being and Spiritual topics.”
The film, by our filmmaker instructors Jeana McCabe and Jordan McTavish, tells the story of former Ontario Superior Court Judge Kevin Whitaker, who turned to painting after his diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia, a particularly virulent form of Parkinson’s. This will be the third film festival where Chasing Monsters has been shown.
Jeana and Jordan produced the documentary following Kevin’s first art show at Back Lane in April 2018. It explores Kevin’s experiences with LBD Parkinson’s, and the impact his embrace of art has had on the progression of the disease.
Painting has also given Kevin a new purpose. He has raised tens of thousands of dollars for LBD Parkinson’s research through the sale of his paintings.
A documentary about former judge turned painter Kevin Whitaker by Back Lane Studios premiered Dec. 1 , 2018 at the Revue Cinema.
Kevin’s large, vivid paintings offer a glimpse inside the hallucinatory world of someone coping with LBD Parkinson’s. His fourth show, Pandemonium, of new works at Back Lane Studios opens Nov. 20, 2020. We will be featuring the paintings on line, but will also offer an opportunity to visit the studio in person.