The first images in the HBO documentary Master of Light show George Anthony Morton chopping up white powder. That crafty opening knowingly plays on our assumptions that Morton is cooking dope. A few beats later and it’s revealed that he’s actually just making paint.
Morton acknowledges the fake-out on a Zoom call. “I was preparing drugs in a similar fashion,” the ex-convict turned celebrated painter says with an ear-to-ear grin. He also praises the way the Dutch film-maker Rosa Ruth Boesten encapsulates the Kansas City native’s harrowing and inspiring journey with a few suggestive strokes.
