NIKI by Celine Sallette

TICKETS | All Aus cinemas | HERE

Q&A March 12, Palace Electric, Canberra

8:10pm Screening and Q & A w Virginia Rigney curator at CMAG

In 1991 Virginia developed the major exhibition, NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE'S LIFE AND ART at the McLellan Galleries Glasgow. Virginia Rigney is an Australian curator, writer, and creative producer, currently the Senior Curator of Visual Arts at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, with extensive experience in museums and galleries in Australia and internationally.

Q&A April 2, Palace Pentridge, Melbourne

8:10pm Screening w Speakers (Watch This Space)

Selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival 2024, this powerful debut from Céline Sallette is an introspective spotlight on one of the contemporary world's most iconoclastic artists. From sculptor and painter to author and filmmaker, who was Niki de Saint-Phalle before becoming the woman who refused to conform? 

1952: Fleeing an oppressive America in the throes of McCarthyism, Niki (Charlotte Le Bon) and her husband Harry (John Robinson) arrive in Paris ready to leave their past behind. Overwhelmed by motherhood and working as a model and actress, Niki hopes her bohemian life is enough to fulfil her—or silence the haunting episodes from her childhood. Just as secrets cannot be forgotten, talent cannot always lie dormant. When Niki is forced to face her demons, will she find something beautiful in the darkness? 

With an unflinching yet gentle eye, Salette sheds light on the monstrous practices women were subjected to in the name of medicine, and their resilient, artistic triumphs in spite of it. An empathetic meditation on the pain we bury, NIKI is the biopic that stands as a testament to the power of art in healing pain.