Directed by Noam Gonick, Michael Walker

Logline: The Golden Boy as seen by artists living across the street from Manitoba's legislature.

Synopsis: Dance, animation and re-enactments unveil the lost identities of the models used by Georges Gardet for "Eternal Youth" (the "Golden Boy"). The artwork's secret identity as Hermes and the Two-Spirit and queer hustling legacies of the legislative grounds are revealed, as is Purple City - an LSD teenage ritual.

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 20 Minutes
GENRE: Experimental, Narrative, Fiction
PRODUCTION FORMAT: HD
LANGUAGE: English
LOCATION: Manitoba
TECHNIQUES: Animated Objects, Animated Painting, Live Action, Special Effects
KEYWORDS: Golden Boy, Hermes, Manitoba Legislature, Greco Roman, Queer, 2SLGBTQ, LGBTQ Filmmaker

Director's Statement: For the 100th birthday of Winnipeg's Golden Boy statue we've made a film about the artwork and the mysterious ways its mythologies and powers affect those living under its influence. Directed by Noam Gonick and Michael Walker, who embodied the role of the sculpture, Purple City uses the statue as a text to interpret the social geography of Winnipeg and the rich history of its legislative grounds where significant discoveries were made. In the anthology Speaking of Winnipeg, Marshall McLuhan whose writing informs our project, spoke of walking to university past the Golden Boy as a young man, positing that the city's livability comes from the fact that its patron is The Golden Boy.

The art piece, originally entitled "Eternal Youth" stands 17.2 feet tall and is perched atop the Beaux-Arts classical legislative building, carrying a bushel of wheat and a torch illuminating the north. Esoteric practitioners posit that the Golden Boy represents Hermes, the ancient Greek messenger, guiding lost souls through the underworld. Hermes was the patron of shepherds and goatherds, of cunning hustlers, athletes and most important: magic. Purple City posits that citizens living in the "light of the Golden Boy's ass" are all disciples of Hermes.

In the apartment building where we live, a Parisian workshop from the era of Erik Satie was created where the art piece was forged a century ago. Sculptor George Gardet introduces us to the forgotten male models, from liverymen to pickpockets, whose physiognomy comprised his statue. These models are a chorus who return throughout the film. They're a gregarious troupe, each prized for his feature that Gardet selected to immortalize: curly hair, bulging biceps, muscular legs, a beatific face. The sculpting sessions were interrupted by bombs of WWI, with the foundry coated in explosion dust. The idea of turning one's suite into a film set came to us from James Bidgood, whose Pink Narcissus we watched on early in our process. Gonick and Walker had the great honour of meeting Bidgood before his death to discuss the film.

As bureaucrats watched from their offices, our film crew assembled a Golden Boy gymnasium on the lawn of the provincial legislature with boxing students chanting to Hermes Trismegistus: "thrice time great!" Scripted scenes depict our lives living in view of the statue and choreography pays tribute to the legislative grounds - the historic site of gay cruising - where the term: "Two Spirit" was first envisioned. Voice-overs from Georges Gardet and the filmmakers are interwoven to relate these story strands across time.