The Disinformation Company has announced an October 15 DVD release date for “REST IN PIECES,” a feature-length documentary portrait of apocalyptic painter Joe Coleman.
“REST IN PIECES documents the life and passion of Joe Coleman, a nice, idealistic Catholic boy who survived a surreal, twisted upbringing surrounded by love and violence, and eventually settled on becoming an artist after abandoning early dreams of mass murder.
Now in his 40’s and just beginning to receive mainstream recognition, Joe paints inhumanly detailed masterworks commissioned by patrons in the international art world and celebrity admirers like Iggy Pop, Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. His tools: magnifying glasses and a single-hair paintbrush to create visual intricacies that match the complexity of his imagination.
The film follows Joe through deserted New York City streets, an autopsy room in Budapest and live performances where he blows himself up with dynamite. Director Robert Pejo pieces together a portrait of his subject through interviews with Joe, his therapist, ex-lovers, his publisher and the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Pejo delves into the intimate folds of Coleman’s bizarre personal life, taking his camera into the artist’s home to film his family—photographer wife Whitney Ward and the couple’s adopted son “Junior,” a deformed baby preserved inside a jar of formaldehyde.
