So Surreal: Behind the Masks

Illustrating a wildly fascinating connection between the work of some Surrealist artists and Indigenous ceremonial masks from the Yup’ik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw nations, So Surreal: Behind the Masks goes on a journey from Turtle Island to Europe to find them.

Cree director Neil Diamond (Reel Injun, TIFF ’09), accompanied by a cadre of interested parties including cultural preservation workers and art experts, journeys across the ocean to try to locate the Raven Transformation Mask, an invaluable cultural item that the northwest coastal community has previously had no luck tracking down.

Using illustration and engaging storytelling, Diamond tells how masks like this left their homelands, through trade and sale but also through theft. The documentary traces them from one prolific collector to museums and an antique store in New York — into which the German Surrealist Max Ernst wandered. He subsequently introduced the masks to his artist friends who, like him, became inspired.

With dreamy Surrealist imagery interspersed with Yup’ik dancers in masks, interviews with current-day carvers and art experts, and one particularly arresting scene in the Louvre with Yup’ik artist, storyteller, and dancer Chuna McIntyre, this doc masterfully weaves together the threads of cultural and artistic histories.

Part detective story and part illuminating history, Behind the Masks is a must-see for anyone who loves art, culture, and entertaining docs.

KELLY BOUTSALIS