Miami Basel: Art's Winter Playground

It was the year 2002 when Miami Beach welcomed the arrival of Art Basel with arms wide open, a bright and invigorating breath of fresh air for Miami’s cultural landscape, which had for so long been described as a stagnant, unexciting wasteland in the art world. Art Basel turned out to be a game changer, having enormous economic, social, and cultural repercussions that have transformed all of South Florida. Miami Basel: Art’s Winter Playground explores the origins of the fair, going as far back as the ’80s and ’90s to paint a picture of the disheartening art scene in Miami in those days. Art collectors, curators and politicians explain the true stroke of genius it was, and the sheer force-of-will it took, to bring the world’s most famous art fair to Miami Beach — and how this one outlandish idea was all it took to conjure up a cultural phenomenon that has grown well beyond a single fair and into an arts happening that brings the entire art world to a single location for a week. (Miami Film Festival)