WRESTLING THE ANGEL
A Poetic Documentary
Step into the imagination of Ann Arnold, Bay Area artist, through this film Wrestling the Angel. PLAY THE TRAILER...
This 23-minute film is entertaining, inspiring and visually-engaging.
A fine art painter reveals life’s insights through visual metaphor, Aesop's fables and the story of Jacob Wrestling the Angel
...as she faces a life-threatening crisis.
The film is nothing less than radiant...
– Lynne Ambrosini, Taft Museum of Art
...beauty, simplicity, a love of nature,
a love of food!
– Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
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Writer/Director, Editor & Music Design
JONATHAN VILLET
Producer, Director of Photography & Trailer Editor
FIONA MCDOUGALL
Illustrations for Animations ANN ARNOLD
Animations
DAVID GONZALES, ZAP MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
Film produced by OneWorld Communications,
San Francisco, 2024
Sponsor a Community, Educational or Corporate Screening
We can help you tailor an event also with a Q&A session.
Please contact Fiona McDougall, Producer
WRESTLING THE ANGEL
Ann Arnold lives and works as a fine art painter and tilemaker in Berkeley, California.
She has illustrated books by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and her own works.
In 2022 Ann was diagnosed with cancer and received radiation and chemotherapy.
She lives with her son Aldo in her Victorian home which is also her art studio and library.
After watching Wrestling the Angel, I felt refreshed, as though I had just dipped into a pure blue lake of wisdom and beauty. The wisdom was that of Ann Arnold, who speaks candidly… The beauty was provided by her enchanting works of art… But most moving of all were her perceptions about how we find meaning in life…The film is nothing less than radiant: it glows brilliantly with Arnold’s humor and humanism and her whimsical, luminous watercolors and oil paintings.
– Lynne Ambrosini, PhD, Deputy Director
/Chief Curator Emerita, Taft Museum of Art
I could watch this film a thousand times... teaching us how to find joy in the moment and be true to our own nature ...you can feel the heat coming off a piece of fruit, capturing the fleeting yet persistent beauty of ordinary things.
– Valerie Andrews, Founder of Reinventing Home: Culture, Creativity, Character
… a wonderful short film... her reflections on how we deal with unexpected setbacks. Do we despair? Do we fight? Or do we, as she suggests, sweep them out like an annoying houseguest and move on?
– Donald G. McNeil Jr, former New York Times science reporter
This film is about ...living meaningfully, discovering deliciousness and beauty in the (sometimes) struggles of everyday life.
– Lucas Foglia, Fine Art Photographer, exhibited SFMOMA & De Young Museum, Guggenheim Fellow 2024
This film captures Ann in her element, speaking eloquently, and plainly, about many of the values she and I both share... the intricacies (and humanity) of the creative process and the transformational power of art ... charming and inspiring film.
– Alice Waters, founder Chez Panisse restaurant and author
“Wrestling the Angel” ... documents Arnold’s career and ethos as an artist as she navigates a cancer diagnosis, calling upon art and literature as tools to make sense of life’s many mysteries.
– THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN
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