Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts

Name: Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts
Genre: Documentary
Released: April 16, 2021
Duration: 75 min
Rating: 80
Cast: Jason Samuels Smith, Russell G. Jones, Sharon Washington

2021

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Generally favorable reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: April 16, 2021 | Not Rated

Starring: Jason Samuels Smith, Russell G. Jones, Sharon Washington

Summary: Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 on a cotton plantation in rural Alabama. After the Civil War, Traylor continued to farm the land as a sharecropper until the late 1920s. Aging and alone, he moved to Montgomery and worked odd jobs in the thriving segregated black neighborhood. A decade later, in his late 80s, Traylor becameBill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 on a cotton plantation in rural Alabama. After the Civil War, Traylor continued to farm the land as a sharecropper until the late 1920s. Aging and alone, he moved to Montgomery and worked odd jobs in the thriving segregated black neighborhood. A decade later, in his late 80s, Traylor became homeless and started to draw and paint, both memories from plantation days and scenes of a radically changing urban culture. Having witnessed profound social and political change during a life spanning slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration, Traylor devised his own visual language to translate an oral culture into something original, powerful, and culturally rooted. He made well over a thousand drawings and paintings between 1939-1942. This colorful, strikingly modernist work eventually led him to be recognized as one of America’s greatest self-taught artists and the subject of a Smithsonian retrospective. [Kino Lorber]… Expand

Director: Jeffrey Wolf

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 75 min

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Critic Reviews

100

G. Allen Johnson

Apr 13, 2021

Jeffrey Wolf’s exceptional documentary Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts seeks to tells its subject’s story in a deeply personal way, while also pulling back when needed to contextualize his work. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

Apr 15, 2021

If every picture tells a story, the body of work displayed in the hauntingly intriguing documentary “Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts” speaks volumes on the life and times of the artist in question. Read full review

Glenn Kenny

Apr 15, 2021

This documentary, directed by Jeffrey Wolf, is a plain, sincere, nourishing account of the artist. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

Apr 13, 2021

Jeffrey Wolf’s documentary is a spry and inventive account of extraordinary transcendence. Read full review

IndieWire Ryan Lattanzio

Apr 22, 2021

While Chasing Ghosts is hardly as bold in its stylistic approach as Traylor, that’s by design, as the documentary is keen to get out of the way and let the work speak for itself. This movie should introduce one of the greatest artists you’ve probably never heard of to a bigger audience. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Apr 13, 2021

The soulful, vibrant, expressive art is almost documentary in nature, like great cave paintings put on cardboard. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Nick Allen

Apr 16, 2021

Chasing Ghosts has a great idea in showcasing as much of Traylor’s work as possible, and next to the creations of other Black artists, but its talking head presentation is fairly didactic. Read full review

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