A passionate admirer of Luis Barragán, artist and filmmaker Jill Magid extends a unique overture to convince the estate of the Mexican architect to bring his archive, which was bought by a Swiss furniture company, back to his native country. Archive gatekeeper Frederica Zanco has spent the last twenty years keeping every scrap of the collection out of public view. In exchange for the return, Magid — with the permission of Barragán family and the police — exhumed his ashes and had a small amount of the cremated remains pressed into a diamond ring. Stunning to look at — not since Joshua Oppenheimer The Act of Killing has a documentary taken such a bold visual approach to storytelling. But where does love of art end and morbid self-promotion begin? What begins with an absorbing struggle over copyright infringement soon descends into an episode of Ghost Hunters with Magid leaving out a plate of Barragán’s favorite cookies in case his spirit is hungry. (2018) — Scott Marks
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