Art, love, ambition and relationships are never an easy mix, but somehow, famed artists and married couple Ushio and Noriko Shinohara have made it work for 40 years. How? Well, Zachary Heinzerling‘s upcoming documentary “Cutie and the Boxer” dives right into the professional and personal connections that bond the pair, and with the movie headed to theaters, we’ve got an exclusive clip that shows the push and pull between these two very talented people.
Combining candid scenes of the couple with archival material and animated sequences, the film details Ushio’s preparation for his upcoming show against the the work of his wife Noriko, whose art is starting to get more recognition. And not just a portrait of two artists, the film is also a document of a particular sort of lifestyle that is becoming rarer in a continually gentrified New York City. “It…came from me having this romantic idea of an artist in New York in the ’70s and New York culture in a lot of ways is defined by the downtown art scene and these people were a part of that and also living in it today,” Heinzerling told us in a recent interview. “So you can transplant yourself back in time and live still in this same style that’s romanticized now. They’re last of a dying breed. They live in this shambled loft surrounded by a totally different New York. It was like being in a time warp.”
Check out the clip below, and keep an eye on your local listings. “Cutie and the Boxer” opens in limited release starting on Friday, August 16th. Check out our A grade review of the film right here.