Nathalia's William Kelly has been honoured worldwide for his art and his long contribution to human rights, social justice and peace.
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For more than 50 years, the 77-year-old printmaker, draftsman, painter and author has travelled the globe with his message on the transformational power of art.
His journeys have earned him the prestigious Courage of Conscience Award, the Medal of the Order of Australia, a Fulbright Scholarship, and the coat of arms of the Spanish city of Guernica made famous by Picasso's celebrated anti-war painting of the same name.
Now Mr Kelly's life and work has been recorded for posterity in a documentary which uses his monumental 2016 artwork Peace or War/ The Big Picture commissioned by the Victorian State Library as a launching point to follow his quest for peace through art.
Along the way, he meets fellow artists, writers, educators and peace campaigners including Hollywood actor and peace activist Martin Sheen, photographer Nick Ut — whose iconic photo of a naked girl running from a Napalm attack helped end the Vietnam War, British philosopher AC Grayling, and Australian indigenous artist Ben McKeown.
The film's title Can Art Stop a Bullet? comes from a penetrating question Mr Kelly posed more than two decades ago.
“Twenty-five years ago I gave a talk when I asked `can art stop a bullet?'. I said a painting can never stop a bullet — but it can stop a bullet being fired.
“A prime example is Picasso's Guernica painting which has had an enormous influence across the world on posters, placards and in magazines and films — saying that violence against civilian populations is wrong.
“More specifically, Nick Ut's image was a serious contributing factor to stopping the war in Vietnam. Nick has told me that veterans came up to him afterwards and thanked him for saving their lives. So I think it's true — art can stop a bullet being fired,” Mr Kelly said.
After a recent premier at the UN Film Festival in San Francisco, in the United States, Can Art Stop A Bullet? comes to Shepparton next month for a single screening at Village Cinemas.
From the opening shot of a canola paddock near Nathalia, Mr Kelly travels the world and even returns to his own American roots in Buffalo, upstate New York, where he began his working life as a steel mill worker.
Mr Kelly said the film came about when he was approached by ABC film producer Mark Street as he worked on his state library piece in 2016.
“I imagined it would be a short documentary about the library artwork. I thought I would provide him with some material — prints, old film, etc — and he would pull it all together from that. But it's turned out to be a collaborative journey with artists from across the world,” he said.
Over three years, Mr Kelly travelled to London, Guernica, New York, Japan and across Australia accompanied by Mr Street and sound engineer David Muir to record conversations with artists and campaigners on the theme of peace and alternatives to violence.
The film will screen in France, Spain, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Japan, the US and Australia.
Mr Street said he was proud his film was receiving recognition.
“This has been an intensive three-year project that has taken us around the globe, meeting some of the world’s most iconic artists. In an age where there is so much political and social uncertainty, Can Art Stop a Bullet reminds us that art has never been in a more powerful position to help calm global crises,” Mr Street said.
Mr Kelly said despite the march of technology, artists had always played an important role in speaking out against violence and finding better ways for humanity to live.
“It's still a piece of the puzzle. From painting to cinema, television, and videos, today we have household names like Banksy and Martin Sheen, The Dixie Chicks and Ai Weiwi speaking out. Art is not being bypassed by new technology,” he said.
“I know who I would rather be walking with in life — and these are the people in the film,” Mr Kelly said.
Can Art Stop a Bullet? William Kelly's Big Picture screens at Village Cinemas, Shepparton, on Thursday, March 12 from 7 pm. Tickets are $25 and can be pre-purchased at https://fan-force.com/screenings/can-art-stop-a-bullet-village-cinemas-shepparton/
● The Shepparton screening depends upon a required number of tickets sold.
A film trailer can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/384512577