A film by Kyle Crichton
Overture
An intimate exploration of how one man's art can capture, critique, and reshape the ongoing American narrative.
01The Premise
Questioning the ease of making art.Interrogating the myths we are raised on.Confronting the contradictions of daily life in America.
- Director
- Kyle Crichton
- Subject
- Mark Thomas Gibson
- Format
- Observational Short
- Stage
- Post-Production
- Location
- Pennsylvania, United States
- Updated
- June 2026
Themes
- Art & Artists
- Politics
- Social / Cultural
02Synopsis
The Film
Over a single transformative year, the film follows American history and political artist Mark Thomas Gibson as he develops his most significant project to date.
Embedded with Gibson for more than a year, the filmmakers document the making of his exhibition, Overture, capturing the creative process in real time as he navigates deadlines, setbacks, and moments of breakthrough.
Along the way the film watches Gibson move through the intersections of art, history, and activism: the scrutiny of the art world, the expectations of academia, the emotional weight of family history, and a volatile political landscape that keeps rewriting itself around him.
What emerges is a portrait of an artist confronting the personal and collective narratives that shape both his identity and his work, art that questions the ease of making art, interrogates the myths we are raised on, and confronts the contradictions of daily life in America.
The Approach
Natural light, long takes, and a grounded stillness, a space where you can feel the weight of his ideas, the humor and the vulnerability.
Shot in an observational vérité register, the camera stays unobtrusive, holding on the quiet intensity of studio practice. There is little narration and less commentary; the artwork and Gibson's presence are left to guide the experience.
The result is meant to be felt rather than explained: reflective, visually rich, and patient enough to let meaning accumulate.
03The Subject
Mark Thomas Gibson
American history painter
Born in Miami in 1980, Gibson is a multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. He calls himself an American history painter, drawing on the visual language of comic books, Renaissance painting, and nineteenth-century political caricature.
His largely black-and-white work, punctuated by sudden, deliberate color, builds a satirical, dystopian America in which every viewer is implicated as a potential character. It confronts race, nationalism, and collective memory while holding a tension between ominous warning and stubborn hope.
- BFA, The Cooper Union
- MFA, Yale School of Art
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Pew Fellowship
- Hodder Fellowship
- Represented by Loyal, Stockholm
In the studio
The work takes shape.
Mark Thomas Gibson at work, observed at the pace of the studio.
04Behind the scenes
On set
A working archive from the studio: cameras, sketches, and the quiet logistics behind the film.
The studio becomes a set: camera, crew, and work in progress.
Image 1 of 3
From the Film
Scene Sample
A short sample from the work in progress. Final color by J.M Wilyat.
05Credits
The team behind the film
Kyle Crichton
Director & Producer
Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker, editor, and post-production supervisor. His recent credits include Bennett Miller’s A Better World; The Darkest Light; PBS Food’s Spice Road Season 2; Rings of Time: Tales from Telluride Bluegrass, executive produced by Ed Helms; Sabbath Queen, directed by Sandi DuBowski and executive produced by Darren Aronofsky; and The Last Out, directed by Sami Khan and Michael Gassert.
Sami Khan
Executive Producer
Sami Khan is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose fiction and documentary work has screened at festivals including Tribeca, Toronto, Hot Docs, and Mumbai. He co-directed the Academy Award-nominated short St. Louis Superman and the Emmy-winning feature documentary The Last Out, which received a Special Jury Prize at Tribeca. His recent work includes directing Apple TV+’s Omnivore and Angel Dose, which won a Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award, as well as serving as a co-executive producer on Netflix’s Starting 5.
Taj DeVore-Bey
Director of Photography
Cinematographer and documentarian based in Philadelphia, using storytelling and image-making to reshape narratives in contemporary society.
Katie Supplee
Cinematography
Award-winning documentary filmmaker, camera operator, and editor based on the East Coast. BFA, University of the Arts (2019); her thesis film The Last Crop won the László Pal Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Gabriella Hsu
Assistant Editor
New York based Taiwanese American film editor with post-production work on Amazon's Road House (2024); Netflix's Rez Ball (2024); and A City in the Forest (2026), which premiered at Sheffield DocFest. Loves crying, playing board games, and hosting people.
J.M Wilyat
Colorist
Los Angeles–based colorist for narrative and documentary film, focused on natural, story-driven color and visual cohesion.
Support the Film
Overture is in its final chapter.
We're seeking partners for the final stages of production and post to realize the film's full creative and cinematic potential, and to reach audiences hungry for meaningful, reflective, and visually rich storytelling.
Overture is a fiscally sponsored project of Brooklyn Filmshop Inc (EIN: 27-2599261).