Friday 16th December 2011  7:00 PM

NASSAU, Bahamas -- The award-winning documentary film Amos Ferguson: Match Me If You Can, will be screened at the NAGB on Friday, December 16th at 7pm. Copies of the film will be sold at a discounted price. After the screening, there will be a Q&A session with Amos? niece Lorraine Bastian and Director Karen Arthur.

Director: Karen Arthur and Thomas Neuwirth
Country: USA, The Bahamas
Language: English
Run time: 60 Minutes

Amos Ferguson: Match Me If You Can pays tribute to this highly spiritual Bahamian intuitive artist known for his brilliantly colored paintings of island ritual, fauna, flora & scenes from the Bible. The documentary explores the life & work of the ?Picasso of Bahamian Art,? from his meager beginnings in The Forest, Exuma, as one of seven surviving children who worked the family farm, to America as one of the original ?contract? workers picking fruit in the fields for American men away at War. Returning to Nassau, he began to paint in his 40?s, using shiny house paints to create simple shapes & quirky subjects with vibrant Caribbean colors.

He painted the Bahamian stories following in the tradition of the ?girot? or African storyteller, later to become the most significant & prolific Bahamian artist ever. His paintings hang in museums worldwide & art collectors internationally honor him in the front ranks of the outsider-art genre. On camera interviews with Amos, friends & family, are interwoven with archival photographs & films, illustrated by his paintings from collectors as well as from his own personal collection. ?No man can teach me what God teach me,? Amos said about his art, ?I paint by Faith, not by sight. Match me if you can.?
"The footage is fresh, informative and evocative, giving the viewer a very real sense of life in pre- and post-independence Bahamas and this artist's struggle to overcome adversity through his art. Most compelling are the paintings themselves that steal the show and beg the question as to why more documentary films of this nature are not being made throughout the region to capture the images and insights of pioneer painters like Amos." ? Petrine Archer-Straw, PhD

Amos Ferguson: Match Me if You Can (Trailer) from Scott Hancock on Vimeo.