Every documentarian exploring the life of a visual artist should consider how that artist’s work can inform the aesthetic of their production. If successfully broached, this challenge – as Larissa Behrendt demonstrates in her fabulously festive portrait of Richard Bell – becomes a blessing, infusing the work with the flavour and flair of its subject.
In the case of Bell – a member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities – it’s not just about indulging his art but his activism, both inseparably entwined, intrinsic to his story and cultural imprint. The necessarily pointy and polemical You Can Go Now captures a man who, according to one interviewee, “knows no boundaries”, “is gangster as fuck” and “unashamedly, unapologetically black”.
