Austin Kleon picks 4 movies to pair with ‘Don’t Call It Art’
In Pairings, artists and creators pick the movies that complement their latest work.
Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a series of illustrated books including Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. His new book Don’t Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like A Kid Again is out now wherever you get your books!
We asked Austin to pick a few movies that pair well with Don’t Call It Art. Here’s what he wrote about them.
My book Don’t Call It Art is made up of the art lessons I learned from my kids when they were really little, so these movies all have some connection to creativity and family.
Beauty is Embarrassing (2012)
A Neil Berkeley documentary about artist Wayne White, featuring his wife, the artist Mimi Pond, and his kids, Lulu and Woodrow White, who are now artists themselves. Came at the perfect time for me, the same year my oldest was born, and made a strong case for the combination of art, humor, play, and family.
Jurassic Park (1993)
I can’t think of a more perfect movie I could’ve seen on my 10th birthday. Our family does pizza and a movie every Friday night and this is one of our top 5 blockbuster hits. The movie is about dinosaurs and technology, of course, but it’s also the story of a guy who thinks he doesn’t like kids discovering there’s more to them than he thought.
The Other F Word (2011)
An Andrea Blaugrund Nevins documentary about punk rockers who became dads. Worth it just for Flea’s tearful monologue: “You always hear people saying that classic parent attitude to a kid, like, ‘I brought you into this world! I gave you life!’ I think completely the opposite. My kids gave me life. You know? They gave me a reason.”
World of Tomorrow (2015)
“A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.” Young Emily in the film is played by Don Herzfeldt’s niece, Winona, who was 4 years old at the time. Herzfeldt discovered that “You can’t direct a 4-year-old,” so he recorded while they drew and played and talked about the world, and he worked the improvised material into the script. A short masterpiece.