Sufjan Stevens Lends Music to <i>MAKE</i> Documentary

BY Alex HudsonPublished Apr 29, 2011

Sufjan Stevens's most recent album, 2010's The Age of Adz, drew its title and thematic inspiration from the apocalyptic paintings of artist Royal Robertson. Now, the songwriter has contributed music to a documentary about several outsider artists, including Robertson.

Entitled MAKE, the film examines four artists: Robertson, a self-proclaimed prophet who covered his home with bizarre signs and apocalyptic paintings; Ike Morgan, who paints jagged versions of well-known portraits; Hawkins Bolden, who creates ominous scarecrows out of scrap materials; and Judith Scott, who wrapped objects in massive balls of yarn.

Directed by Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn, the film has been almost 12 years in the making, and versions of it have been circulating around New York for the last couple of years. Now, with soundtrack contributions from Stevens and Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday, Jim Guthrie, Au Revoir Simone, Oneida and others, the documentary is finally finished.

MAKE will come out via Asthmatic Kitty. In an announcement from the label, Sufjan said that the documentary is "a beautiful and insightful look at the sublime task of making art when nothing else will do."

Asthmatic Kitty's website says that the film will come out in May, but Pitchfork reports that the DVD is slated for June 21.

See a trailer below. Unfortunately, there is no word of a separate soundtrack release or which songs specifically the artists have contributed to the film.

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