MAKE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING … Beautiful Losers

By Kate Williams Beautiful Losers opens with a static shot of a surburban house in what could be Anytown, U.S.A. Ed Templeton stands in front of it (it’s his house, as indicated by a small sign stuck in the garden), smiling and cranking out a tune on a tiny accordian. With his goofy grin and pudgy belly, Templeton looks like just another guy whose cart is blocking the beer aisle at the grocery store. He doesn’t fit the mold of renowned artist, but this is a film dedicated to showcasing artists who defy stereotypes, and this opening shot sets the perfect tone for the inspiring and emotional documentary that follows.

Through interviews, archival footage, and plenty of art and photographs, Beautiful Losers focuses on a group of creative types—Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine, Stephen Powers, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson and Mike Mills—who came of age not in art schools and the gallery world, but in the skate, surf and punk scenes.

The film was made by Aaron Rose, the curator responsible for bringing many of these artists together, first at the Alleged Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side in the 1990s, and later in the traveling exhibition Beautiful Losers, from which the film takes its name. Refreshingly, Rose refrains from trying to make any of the artists explain or justify their success and instead just lets them tell their stories. “I think one of our biggest mistakes was trying to fit the film into a standard documentary format,” he says. “As long as we were doing that, it just never worked. We lost the spirit of the art and the artists. As soon as we let it follow its own path and come together organically, it really began to bloom.”

Though many of the artists featured in Beautiful Losers are now among the most in-demand in the world (McFetridge doing Pepsi campaigns, Mills doing Volkswagen commericals) most retain their outsider status, or the awkwardness that made them outsiders in the first place.Mills wears an ill-fitting suit, sweetly reminescent of a date who overdresses trying to make a good impression. McGee scribbles in the dust rather than making eye contact with the camera. Korine comes off as an adorable weirdo.

What these souls have in common, though, is the fact that none set out to be famous, or even to be “good.” They all just wanted to make something. “They’re all just really good people,” Rose says. “I know that sounds kinda lame, but that’s a quality that’s sometimes rare. Everyone always seems so keen to ‘get theirs’ in this world. It’s been so nice to be able to fill my life with people who want to give back. I think that is one of the most important messages in the movie: the act of giving something back.” For more information, see beautifullosers.com.