Heaven is a Traffic Jam
on the 405
“A 2018 Oscar winner for Best Documentary Short, this film portrays the brilliant artist Mindy Alper, who has always battled devastating depression and anxiety. Her hyper self-awareness has produced drawings & sculpture that describe her state with powerful psychological precision. By examining her family history and a lifetime of her work, we learn how art gave her a voice that saved her life.”.- Amazon Prime Video
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Frank Stiefel's fascinating portrait of the artist Mindy Alper has many layers, almost as many as the wire spirals of Alper's whimsical and haunting sculptures.”
-Judy Dry, IndieWire
Best Documentary Short
(2018) Directed by Frank Stiefel
Frank Stiefel
Photo by: Kevin Winter | Credit: Getty Images
While studying at Tom Wudl Studio in the 2010s, Alper caught the attention of B. J. Dockweiler, a fellow painter and classmate. Dockweiler was fascinated by Alper's work and disposition. Dockweiler's husband, Frank Stiefel, was equally intrigued when he met Alper at a group show and saw some of her pieces. He talked with Alper occasionally, as they attended some of the same art openings. He asked if he could film her as she worked on one of her newest pieces: a monumental bust of her therapist, Shoshana Gerson After a few months of filming, Stiefel interviewed Alper on camera; five more interviews followed, and Alper's story emerged.
The film, Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405, premiered at the Austin Film Festival in 2016, where it won the Jury Award and the Audience Award in the "Documentary Short" category. The Jury Award qualified the film for an Academy Award nomination. At the 90th Academy Awards in 2018 it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).
Acceptance Speech, Academy Awards, 2018
BJ Dockweiler, Frank Stiefel, Mindy Alper, Michael Beckson
Photo by: Frazer Harrison | Credit: Getty Images
Los Angeles Times
[…]
Frank Stiefel's "Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405" offers an intensely moving portrait of 56-year-old Angeleno artist Mindy Alper, whose life is an ongoing struggle to balance depression and often debilitating mental disorder — including a decade without speaking — with a richly expressive talent (for drawing and sculpture) that thrillingly connects her soul to the world.
[…]
By Robert Abele
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