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Film by former Clevelanders shows transformative power of art
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BY: SUSAN H. KAHN Assistant Editor
Racism, ego and lust brought Albert Wagner to the brink of ruin.
The African-American family man from East Cleveland was ruined by his weakness for alcohol and sex. After being jailed briefly at age 50, he turned to God, who he says called him to use his artistic talent to fight his demons and inspire others to live better lives.
The Thomas G. Miller documentary “One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story” explores why, during Wagner’s pursuit of salvation, he creates as many detractors as champions and how the ailing artist comes to terms with his checkered past. The film won the Roxanne T. Mueller Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival this past March; it opens this weekend at the Cedar Lee Theatre. (See show times, p. 49.)
Wagner, who died in 2006 at age 82, developed his own idiosyncratic religious denomination, The People Love People House of God. He also became a recognized force in “outsider art” for his provocative paintings.
Like the subject of his documentary, director Miller has reinvented himself. The Shaker Heights native was a pediatrician in a busy South Euclid practice for nine years. But at age 34 he developed arthritis of the vocal chords, which led to a permanent tracheotomy in 1990.
“After that, I picked up every type of respiratory illness from my patients; I eventually lost my voice for three months, ” says Miller in a CJN phone interview. “My physician told me I’d have to find a new career.”
In 1992, Miller moved to California, where he earned his MFA at the University of Southern California (USC) School for Cinematic Arts. For the last 13 years, Miller, who is Jewish, has worked on documentaries and in public television. In this endeavor, he has discovered a new kind of “voice.”
Working on “One Bad Cat” gave Miller a chance to overcome his own personal obstacle, a fear of the “hood.” Making the movie led him to recognize his own prejudices.
Wagner lived and painted in East Cleveland, “only a mile from the two hospitals where I worked, yet I had never heard of him,” says Miller. “As a white man, I was afraid to venture into neighborhoods that I associated with the Hough riots of my youth.”
Miller was enlisted to direct “One Bad Cat” by another former Clevelander, Nancy Green Dickenson, the film’s producer. The two had collaborated on an earlier documentary.
Dickenson has long had an interest in Folk Art. In 1982, during her five-year tenure as director of Case’s Mather Art Gallery, she met the gregarious Wagner. In 1984, when Dickenson directed the documentary “Cleveland Black Folk Art Exhibit and Festival,” Wagner was one of the featured artists. It was his first show, and his work became the star attraction.
Reprinted from an article that originally appeared in the March 7, 2008, issue.
skahn@cjn.org
WHAT: Documentary film “One Bad Cat”
WHEN: Sept. 5-11. Director Tom Miller leads post-film Q&A Sept. 5
WHERE: The Cedar Lee Theatre
The African-American family man from East Cleveland was ruined by his weakness for alcohol and sex. After being jailed briefly at age 50, he turned to God, who he says called him to use his artistic talent to fight his demons and inspire others to live better lives.
The Thomas G. Miller documentary “One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story” explores why, during Wagner’s pursuit of salvation, he creates as many detractors as champions and how the ailing artist comes to terms with his checkered past. The film won the Roxanne T. Mueller Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival this past March; it opens this weekend at the Cedar Lee Theatre. (See show times, p. 49.)
Wagner, who died in 2006 at age 82, developed his own idiosyncratic religious denomination, The People Love People House of God. He also became a recognized force in “outsider art” for his provocative paintings.
Like the subject of his documentary, director Miller has reinvented himself. The Shaker Heights native was a pediatrician in a busy South Euclid practice for nine years. But at age 34 he developed arthritis of the vocal chords, which led to a permanent tracheotomy in 1990.
“After that, I picked up every type of respiratory illness from my patients; I eventually lost my voice for three months, ” says Miller in a CJN phone interview. “My physician told me I’d have to find a new career.”
In 1992, Miller moved to California, where he earned his MFA at the University of Southern California (USC) School for Cinematic Arts. For the last 13 years, Miller, who is Jewish, has worked on documentaries and in public television. In this endeavor, he has discovered a new kind of “voice.”
Working on “One Bad Cat” gave Miller a chance to overcome his own personal obstacle, a fear of the “hood.” Making the movie led him to recognize his own prejudices.
Wagner lived and painted in East Cleveland, “only a mile from the two hospitals where I worked, yet I had never heard of him,” says Miller. “As a white man, I was afraid to venture into neighborhoods that I associated with the Hough riots of my youth.”
Miller was enlisted to direct “One Bad Cat” by another former Clevelander, Nancy Green Dickenson, the film’s producer. The two had collaborated on an earlier documentary.
Dickenson has long had an interest in Folk Art. In 1982, during her five-year tenure as director of Case’s Mather Art Gallery, she met the gregarious Wagner. In 1984, when Dickenson directed the documentary “Cleveland Black Folk Art Exhibit and Festival,” Wagner was one of the featured artists. It was his first show, and his work became the star attraction.
Reprinted from an article that originally appeared in the March 7, 2008, issue.
skahn@cjn.org
WHAT: Documentary film “One Bad Cat”
WHEN: Sept. 5-11. Director Tom Miller leads post-film Q&A Sept. 5
WHERE: The Cedar Lee Theatre
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