Taking Venice

During the cold war years, it was a showdown between russia and the united states. It's not clear just what was really going on, even all these years later. Were we trying to show how far ahead our culture really was, or was it an effort to take an award we didn't deserve? Or was it really something else? At the art exhibit in venice, 1964, there were claims of conspiracy, which may or may not have been true. This film tries to examine what took place during that time. The art exhibit rules were complicated, but having artist robert rauschenberg was thought to be huge, a coup at the time. The u s information agency (what ?) was backing the art installation brought over. Alice denney's husband was connected to the department of defense, so he was able to provide the huge military aircraft "needed for such a large exhibit". In interviews with alice denney, alan solomon, ed mcbride, we get background, facts, history, and opinions. Leo castelli was the dealer, able to find a buyer for for any art. It's all very confusing, since we don't really know exactly what was going on. The policy is, and always was... deny, deny, deny. Written and directed by amei wallach. Not sure what to think of this one, all these years later. Hard to call it a documentary, since we still don't know how true anything is.