Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski Soundtrack (2018)

Synopsis

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski is a documentary that features old Betamax footage of the Polish-American artist Stanislav Szukalski (1893-1987) speaking passionately about his life and work.

Art aficionado Glenn Bray filmed Szukalski in the final years of his life to capture his remarkable career and personality before it was too late.

Bray recounts how he met Szukalski by chance in 1971 when he stumbled upon one of his expressionist drawings and learned that the artist lived just a few miles away from him.

Szukalski, who led a modest life in Burbank, California, was revealed to have been a well-known avant-garde artist in Chicago and pre-war Poland.

The artist created his own mythology in his drawings and paintings, as well as an extensive manuscript.

Upon returning to the United States, a group of artists and art enthusiasts, including George DiCaprio and his son Leonardo, gathered around Szukalski to produce this documentary.

The interviews and archive footage in the documentary shed light on the extraordinary life of a man who lost most of his artwork during World War II.

It is revealed that Szukalski had a dark chapter in his past that the filmmakers only discovered during the production of the documentary.

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