Painting with Scissors

80 minutes

1w, 1m

Synopsis:

The act of cutting and the belief that art can save us are the twin themes of this story. Teenaged Clara cuts herself to deal with the aftermath of an unspeakable trauma. Henri Matisse, a famous painter who at the end of his life was too weak to stand before his easel, cuts collages to continue to illuminate the rich world that makes him “drunk with color.”

The two characters meet in a limbo world somewhere between now and the next. Clara is isolated in a stark, grey cell in what appears to be a 1950s asylum. The spirit of Matisse visits often, introducing more color, more creative freedom, and more insights that help Clara confront her demons and begin to heal. At the same time Clara finds ways to chip away at the toxic secrets Matisse has been hiding even from himself. Together, they construct a private paradise within Clara’s cell with scissors and large sheets of paper that turns their drab environment into a vivid collage full of new possibilities.