That One Guy That Told Bob Ross His Art Wouldnt Make Musems
M aking a documentary about the Goggle box creative person Bob Ross should, in theory, take been a pleasant meander through the life of a beloved figure – a cross betwixt America'due south Mister Rogers and Britain'south Tony Hart.
Only when Joshua Rofé got to work as director, he plunged into a maze of ugly legal disputes, interviewees too scared to go on the record and bitter wrangling over Ross'due south legacy.
This is the surprise twist in Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, a Netflix moving picture about the landscape artist who created more 30,000 paintings and touched millions of lives before his expiry from lymphoma in 1995 at the age of 52.
"In no mode did I prepare out to make a film that was a 'gotcha!' film," Rofé says via Zoom from New York. "I simply wanted to make a film that would represent this individual who is in many means a mystery and yet completely dear by and so many."
Indeed, the documentary starts as conventional biography, telling how Ross served in the air force for 20 years, learned a wet-on-wet painting technique from a close friend and became all-time known for producing tranquil nature scenes featuring "happy little trees".
With permed pilus and mild voice, he hosted The Joy of Painting on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) from 1983 to 1994. His words of whimsy included, "Every day is a bye when yous paint," and "Nosotros don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents." It was comfort television, similar soaking in a warm bath, in the days when appointment goggle box ruled.
Rofé, 38, says: "It was right size for the era. There was no Twitter. There was no Instagram. There was no Netflix and so to see Bob Ross was to tune into his prove when it was programmed to be on television and he had a huge following."
Ross was an "incredibly skilled artist" whose work elicits "a cosy winter feeling", says the managing director. He recalls speaking to 1 person who plant Ross's bear witness a refuge from arguing parents headed for divorce. "It was chaotic, a lot of yelling, a lot of fighting and their home life was crude, but when they got home from school and they could watch Bob Ross for 30 minutes they were completely discrete from the angst that permeated the firm."
At present the artist is enjoying a posthumous second act every bit pop civilization figure on the cyberspace. Rofé adds: "If you lot fast-forward to around 2015, we've got the appearance of streaming platforms and all of these apps and technology and at present a whole new generation is discovering Bob Ross for the get-go fourth dimension. He becomes an iconic effigy, I would say, at a level that he hadn't even reached previously."
Then far, and then innocent. Rofé had been mulling a film thought well-nigh American artists and their relationship with American history when he was brought in by Melissa McCarthy and husband, Ben Falcone, both actors, writers, producers – and enthusiastic fans of Ross. The couple had originally conceived a biopic only, with data most his life sketchy, switched focus to a documentary.
Once Rofé and his team got to work tracking downward potential interviewees, however, it was articulate even this project would not be straightforward – less warm bath than shark attack. "I got two things back pretty much every time. One was everybody loved Bob and missed him dearly and and then, two, they too permit the states know that there's no manner that they're going to participate in a documentary about him because they're afraid to speak about him on photographic camera publicly.
"This fear was murky initially, but it was they made information technology clear that it centred effectually some form of legal retaliation and at that place was a corporate entity that they wouldn't name. And so in that moment, I, like whatever documentary pic-maker, knew that this was going to be something that I had to do and this was probably going to be more compelling than I fifty-fifty could have anticipated."
More than a dozen people who knew Ross declined to be interviewed for the flick. The source of their fears was a couple, Annette and Walter Kowalski, longtime business partners of Ross during the glory days of The Joy of Painting. They helped build his brand but the relationship was messy. In the film, Ross's son, Steve, giving his outset on-camera interview, says: "There was an matter between my father and Annette, aye." (The Kowalskis deny this.)
More consequentially the Kowalskis, who declined to be interviewed, at present control Bob Ross Inc, the visitor that oversees the lucrative apply of Ross's proper noun and paradigm on paints, brushes and other merchandise. Steve alleges that, when his male parent was nearing death, the Kowalskis asked him to become Ross to sign a "memorial understanding".
Steve says in the film: "It looked to me like they were trying to get Bob to sign his name over to them," and claims this led to a furious statement. "Yous could hear him screaming, 'I'yard non giving you my name' … They literally wanted to steal Dad'southward name, and did."
Steve says the Kowalskis did not nourish his father's funeral just exploited his cultural afterlife. He lost a lawsuit against Bob Ross Inc in 2019, leaving hm unable to financially do good from his father'southward proper name or image. The film suggests that while the Kowalskis clearly have the constabulary on their side, the morality is more than ambiguous.
Rofé reflects: "It was shocking and so it was not shocking. Information technology was shocking because you lot recall, 'Oh, my God, I did not expect that,' and and so the follow-up thought a carve up second later is, 'Of form, fine art and commerce'. This is the oldest story in the books and this is simply the way these things seem to go.
"Yous take to let the story guide you. You can't dictate or manipulate a story when you're making a documentary. Information technology reveals itself to you and you're there to merely award information technology, I recollect."
Bob Ross Inc denies the allegations. In a statement issued after the documentary was released on Netflix, it said: "Bob Ross Inc takes stiff consequence with the inaccurate and heavily slanted portrayal of our company in the Netflix movie, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Expose & Greed."
The visitor added: "If not for the efforts of the remaining founders and their dedication to this mission, Bob's artistic and cultural relevance – and his expressed desire to get the world's nigh beloved painting teacher and friend – would have been lost decades ago with his passing.
"Bob Ross may not have shared the inherent structural features of his company with family unit and friends – which are very common in small private companies – resulting in many of the unsubstantiated accusations fabricated in the picture show."
Rofé says he was disappointed by the Kowalskis' unwillingness to become on photographic camera. "We reached out a few times. They chose not to participate. They got to say their piece via a few statements that they provided to the states. It would accept been great if they participated. They chose not to and I stand by everything in the film completely."
He adds: "People have a choice whether they want to purchase a product or not and the moving-picture show was non made with the intention of existence a piece of advocacy. I just want people to feel connected to Bob in a way that actually has more than depth emotionally than they always had the opportunity to. He's more than than the 30 minutes on the evidence and he'southward more than an meme."
Ross fans will be relieved that his avuncular reputation emerges intact. And while the legal boxing has garnered most attention since the film's release, for Rofé information technology is not the emotional middle of the piece. The documentary includes a poignant segment near Steve making awkward appearances on The Joy of Painting and being put nether pressure level to follow in his male parent'south brushstrokes.
Steve recalls: "In that location was a power struggle between us, I guess you would say. At that place was a little bit of a fight that broke out between us. I wanted to go off and exercise my ain thing and he wanted me to do what he did. There was probably a few years that nosotros didn't talk much at all. I'1000 withal a fiddling flake angry inside with myself over that."
The pair reconciled before Ross's death and Steve, like his begetter, now teaches art classes. Rofé adds: "In many ways, I retrieve of this as a father-son story and I think of this every bit a story that is a reminder of what life could be like when we were robbed of years with our loved ones because somebody gets sick and passes away far likewise early on.
"So for me, information technology really all goes back to the emotional connection to Bob and that certainly extends to Steve. The beloved and loss that is so present in the dynamic between the two of them in the film is really, to a higher place all, what I promise people connect with and walk abroad remembering."
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Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed is available on Netflix now
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/31/bob-ross-documentary-netflix-joshua-rofe
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