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SPOTLESS

By Drew LIGHTFOOT

Art - Culture - Post-Production 2016

Film animator Drew Lightfoot traverses the contemporary global art world to examine how billionaire ego, insider manipulation and cunning PR are responsible for the unreal valuations in today’s art market.

- Year of production
- 2016
- Genres
- Art - Culture, Documentary
- Countries
- CANADA
- Duration
- 88 mn
- Director(s)
- Drew LIGHTFOOT
- Producer(s)
- Tyler LEVINE (CAROUSEL PICTURES)
- Synopsis
- For many years, art lover Drew Lightfoot has been an animator, working behind the scenes in the feature film world. In 'Spotless', Drew steps in front of the camera for the first time to document his participation in a contemporary art investment gamble: he’ll travel with a film crew around the globe attending an international exhibit of 'Spot Paintings' by the UK’s most successful living artist, Damien Hirst, and in the end be rewarded with a ‘Spot’ print of his own. With a projected value of up to two hundred thousand dollars per print, Drew jumps at the opportunity to visit eleven galleries across three continents and collect a piece of art that could not only pay for the whole adventure but also yield a profit.
  
  Along the way, Drew finds himself troubled by the arbitrary, often ludicrous manner in which contemporary art is valued. The simultaneous explosion of the worldwide Occupy movement only adds to his unease. How is it that, in the midst of so much economic distress, a painting that could pass for designer wallpaper can sell for 3.4 million dollars?
  
  The shocking answers Drew uncovers reveal a wildly unregulated market fueled by sophisticated promotion, insider chicanery, billionaire brinksmanship, and money laundering—everything but a true recognition of merit. In a world where the poor are getting poorer and the rich so much richer, Drew Lightfoot discovers precisely how the contemporary art world manufactures value… and cunningly hides its spots.