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| Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (Documentary) | 
 enlarge | Director: Harry Moses
Actor: Teri Horton
Studio: New Line Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $27.98
Buy New: $5.79
You Save: $22.19 (79%)
Buy New/Used from $5.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  (21 reviews)
Sales Rank: 21913
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 74 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: TRNDN10762D
UPC: 794043107627
EAN: 0794043107627
ASIN: B000NVI0EY
Release Date: May 1, 2007
Theatrical Release Date: November 9, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
When Teri Horton, a 73-year-old former long-haul truck driver with an eighth grade education bought a painting in a thrift shop for five dollars, she didn't know that it would pit her against the most powerful people in the art community and perhaps forever change the way art is authenticated around the world. Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? is a rollicking adventure that documents a 15-year war with the art world's inner circle, lifts the veil on how art is bought and sold in America and introduces audiences to the funny, profane and utterly unforgettable Teri Horton.
Amazon.com
Ex-60 Minutes producer Harry Moses made Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?, a favorite documentary film at festivals in 2006. Like an extended 60 Minutes segment, the film presents all aspects of the drama surrounding San Bernadino resident Teri Horton's ten year crusade to certify that her thrift store art purchase is an authentic Jackson Pollock painting worth $60 million. The story, hilarious because of Horton's vibrant, spitfire personality, and because of the absurd lengths she has gone to prove skeptical Pollock experts wrong, extends into a larger sociological discussion of art historical fraud. Gathering forensic evidence to battle art critics and collectors, Horton's attempt to buck the system, which requires provenance and a paper trail to qualify artwork, seems lame. Early on, for example, she claims that the painting was made in a bar at ski resort Mt. Baldy, where several movie stars were snowed in and forced to make artwork together culminating in Pollock's signing the painting with his penis. Interviewed, she explains why she's declared war on the established, discriminatory "art world." As the plot thickens, the viewer chuckles at its absurdity, but also sympathizes with this clever woman who, if anything, deserves some payment simply for her dedication to the cause. --Trinie Dalton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Entertaining Assault on a Bastion of High Art December 1, 2008
Looking for a gift to cheer up a friend, Teri Horton finds a splotchy, squiggly painting in a thrift shop and buys it for $5. Someone tells her that it may have been painted by Jackson Pollock, a major god of abstract expressionist art. If it's certified as a Pollock, $5 just became $50 million. All Teri has to do is convince the experts, and we have a ringside seat as this feisty, foul-mouthed, long haul trucker lays siege to the art world.
Teri's the underdog, and we're rooting for her over the experts, who come across as sniffy and supercilious. Teri has two big proof problems: no signature and no provenance (the documented history of whose hands the painting passed through on the way to yours.) She gets a huge boost from a forensic art expert in Canada who matches a fingerprint from Teri's painting with one he's lifted from Pollock's studio. He matches up some paint samples as well. This doesn't convince the experts, who give more credence to the fact that it doesn't "feel" like a Pollock. (And, if you've stared at enough Pollocks yourself, you may agree with them - something about the lack of looseness and expressiveness in the hand that applied the paint.)
Class, and its role in the art world, is an issue. Teri's blue collar all the way, her life shaped by grit, humor, heart, self-destructiveness and bad luck. She's a complex and appealing character, but not likely to convince the curators and gallerists that she owns a major painting by a major painter. The art dealer she hires to help her is mainly interested in getting her out of the picture so he can maneuver in the moneyed circles whose attention is needed to make the painting credible.
Is Teri Horton's Pollock real or a fake? The documentary gives you all the points of view, and lets you draw your own conclusion. Along the way, you'll get an entertaining look at how the art game is played in America, and learn a lot about the arbiters and guardians of "authentic" artistic genius.
 useless documentary on Pollock September 18, 2008
Useless documentary. The Synopsis says that this dvd is a look into the life and works of Pollock?
It is simply untrue. Instead it is all about some old womam who may or may not have bought a Pollock painting. Who cares? Avoid.
A total waste of time and money.Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (Documentary)
 An Enjoyable And Eye Opening Documentary. August 31, 2008
Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? is one of those rare documentaries that really makes an impact. It exposes a certain section of society that some would come to respect without knowing much about it. This documentary exposes the art world and the apparent art experts for the pugnacious morons that they are.
The documentary focuses around Terri Horton a small town trailer park female truck driver who one day buys a painting from a thrift store for $5. She is told by someone that she may be in possession of an original Jackson Pollock painting worth over $50 Million. She's never heard of Jackson Pollock but becomes determined to prove its authenticity. She struggles to get experts to take a look at it, but due to their own snobbery they downright refuse to even look.
This documentary has a so called expert Thomas Hoving take a look at it, but as predicted he downright turns down its authenticity and claims his "expertise" are above even forensic evidence. He seems possibly the most infuriating person that can ever be featured in a documentary and I hope he doesn't express how the art world really is, as it's truly ugly.
A wonderful documentary that has you hoping she will succeed in her task to have it authenticated then sold. I would highly recommend it to anyone that isn't even familiar with the art world.
 Fingerprint Evidence and the Truth July 15, 2008
It sounded like an appealing story but too bad for me I didn't remember until after it came in the mail from Amazon, how most documentaries leave you with questions that just can't be answered, and the bonus material on this DVD is singularly flat. Maybe there's some interesting info on the DYD-CDROM fetaure, but it can't be accessed with my humble MAC. There are so many questions I want to know the answers to. The product description calls Teri Horton a 73-year-old retired truckdriver who bought this pucture at a thrift store. Then they say it has been a 15 year fight against the art world. Was she 73 when she bought the picture, and is she 88 now? If so she's in really good shape.
When she started to lie about how she got the picture, that's when I tuned out a bit. Horton has more problems than the film is willing to admit. The fil;m is ostensibly about the art world but really it's more about the emotional problems of a woman feisty on the outside, and really messed up on the inside. Joan Blondell would have done a better job of playing her, than she does herself.
I had this DVD for awhile, maybe a year, without ever getting the energy to put it in the DVD drive and watching it, but when my wife and I came back from a trip to Boulder, we found it whirring around in the DVD player and decided either the cats, or the catsitter, had tried it out. Hope they enjoyed it more than I did, not that it's bad, it's just I felt sorry for this woman they keep showing and treating like some sort of country-fried moron, fighting the big boys upstairs. Oh, that Thomas Hoving--he's the new man you love to hate, what a creep.
Great movie, but way overpriced July 3, 2008
This is a terrific documentary and should be seen by anyone who is interested in art and/or human nature. Most of the other reviews cover the essential details, so I won't repeat them. However, for a movie with a running time of only 74 minutes on a DVD with no special features, outtakes or anything else, it's way overpriced at $25. Rent it, buy it used, or wait till it's $15, but don't get gouged.
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