Mr Lowry

Before Leslie Woodhead began an independent career as a documentary filmmaker in 1989 and prior to making the award-winning A Cry from the Grave (1999) for BBC Films, he worked for Granada Television for 28 years. Mr. Lowry was his first documentary for Granada - in it, he observes the British painter L.S. Lowry in cinema verité style. Lowry painted the ever-changing industrial landscape around Manchester over the course of 40 years. Lack of money forced his family to reside on a simple street in Pendlebury, where factory chimneys dominated the horizon. His full canvases were inspired by his immediate surroundings, and he populated them with his renowned "matchstick figures." For years, this self-taught artist was labelled an amateur and a Sunday painter. Although Lowry always wondered if his art would withstand the test of time, he managed to get some serious recognition later in life when his work began to sell successfully. Woodhead films Lowry at work in his messy studio and accompanies him to Manchester, where he makes sketches, and to London, where his work is featured in an exhibition. Lowry's early lack of success is compensated by his dry sense of humour and his apt reflections on life and the art of painting. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)