Film Explores the Maze of Spirituality That Was Artist William Kurelek

THE GLOBE AND MAIL
By Kate Taylor

"This is the Nemesis" (1965; mixed media on masonite). This was Kurelek's apocalyptic vision of the destruction of Hamilton, Ont.

CANADA---In 1969 the Canadian artist Willliam Kurelek told the American filmmaker Robert M. Young: “First of all, I would like to state quite categorically that I don’t believe I was ever mental … I wasn’t mental.” Today, it is that statement that opens William Kurelek’s The Maze, a remake of Young’s original documentary about the artist undertaken by the filmmaker’s sons, Nick and Zack Young. The remade film tells the story of Kurelek’s remarkable spiritual journey from a British psychiatric hospital to the Toronto art world. Meanwhile, the story behind the documentary, which will be screened at the Rendezvous with Madness film festival next month after a Toronto premiere Friday, is also remarkable, as a filmmaking family unearths an unseen treasure from its own vaults and restores it to view. [link]