CAMDEN — It’s always interesting to see what Camden International Film Fest’s (CIFF) opening night film will be, as it sets the tone for the weekend, along with the bumper (the short intro before each film shot by Jonathan Laurence). This year’s opening film titled Cutie and the Boxer was shot by director Zachary Heinzerling over approximately five years as he worked his way into filming the relationship between Ushio Shinohara and his wife of 40 years, artist Noriko Sinohara.

Ushio, a Japanese Neo-Dadaist artist, is more than 20 years Noriko’s senior and he earned early fame with his colorful, oversized works, such as his impressionistic boxing paintings, where he would dip his gloves into buckets of paint and slam the canvas from left to right in under a few minutes.

His wife, Noriko, is also an artist who has lived much of her life in Ushio’s artistic shadow. Her comic book drawings of herself as “Cutie” and her partner on paper as “Bullie” are a stark contrast to the poignant captions she gives the characters... essentially telling the audience that her support and sacrifice has not necessarily been equally returned over the years. At one point, Ushio makes a crack in the film (he words shown in subtitles) when he says: “The average must support the genius.” To which Noriko replies: “You are so pitiful,” much to the audience’s laughter. However, Noriko’s narrative becomes the more compelling thread of the film, as it shows how many years it has taken her to find her own identity.

Anyone who has ever lived with an artist or was the artist while the other partner made a living will see themselves reflected in this documentary about a marriage, which is both contentious and affectionate, resentful and proud. It is the perfect film to open a three-day weekend of workshops and screenings that center around the art of film and the art of making it. What exactly goes into one’s sacrifice? You tend to wonder — who are the other average people in these filmmakers’ lives supporting the genius? Or is it the other way around?

In a post-screening Q & A with Farnsworth Art Museum’s Director of Education, Roger Dell and Cutie and the Boxer’s director Zachary Heinzerling, the audience got a bit more insight on Heinzerling’s relationship with the Shinoharas and how he earned their trust to film them day to day.

“It was really hard to see the intimacy beneath the charade that they play off each other. When asked questions about their relationship, they were always deflecting that, talking about practical reasons [why they stay together]. They’d say it’s easier to pay rent with two people instead of one. They’d not give a real answer to these questions, so it became a process to really trying to see their connection and bond. I think their generosity played into allowing a side of themselves that they weren’t necessarily used to showing, especially to someone like me, I’m from Texas, I don’t speak Japanese. So culturally, there was obviosly a wall that we chipped away at. And what you see in the film is really the only last year and a half of shooting—we’d reached this level of comfort. I became a house hold object. Noriko called me her ‘rice cooker’ or ‘vacuum cleaner’— I was just around.”

To find out more about how Heinzerling came to know his subjects, check out this article on IndieWire. You can see Cutie and the Boxer’s original trailer here. For more information on CIFF’s lineup this weekend go to: http://camdenfilmfest.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com