South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival – Contemporary blind-contour artist Sophie Kipner, working in a medium most don’t understand, where she draws from a reference without ever lifting her pen or looking away from the reference image. Her style is unmistakable, stunningly complex, and absolutely perfectly suited for the iconic photography of Baron Wolman. When they decide to collaborate, the results, and the documentary short on the subject, Sophie and The Baron, is transcendent, evocative, and gorgeous.

Baron Wolman may not be a household name, but he absolutely should be. The photographer behind countless covers of Rolling Stone magazine, famously photographing the likes of Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, and hundreds more. An artistic phenomenon walks into a bar… and at that bar, Sophie Kipner is the bartender… and a creative match is born. Lovingly, sweetly, and delicately, Sophie begins her work as Wolman looks on in awe.

A touching, moving tribute to the beautiful work of Wolman, the emerging talent of Kipner, and the stunningly iconic art that both of them create, Sophie and The Baron absolutely steals your heart for the short thirty minute runtime. I fell madly in love with both Wolman and Kipner, moved to tears by their love of their art, and their love of each other. Their friendship and kinship runs deep, and permeates every frame of this love letter of a film. Gorgeous art becomes gorgeous life, and vice versa… even as in the last frames we mourn the loss of Wolman to complications of ALS in 2020.

Sophie, Baron, and their remarkable story of love and friendship reminds us of one simple truth: Life is always better when you say “YES.” Sophie Kipner continues to create unbelievable art, and is releasing her first novel at the end of March 2021.

Sophie and The Baron reviewed as part of our South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival coverage.

9 out of 10