Absolut Warhola (2001)

The German-Polish filmmaker Mucha sets out to trace Andy Warhol’s relatives in the small town of Medzilaborce and the neighboring village of Miková in Slovakia. The two settlements lie in the tri-border region where Slovakia meets Poland and Ukraine. Andy Warhol’s parents were born, grew up, and married here before emigrating to the United States before the First World War. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh in 1928. Mucha asks local residents about their most famous son and finds a nonchalant attitude toward Warhol’s art, Pop Art. He tracks down Andy Warhol’s aunt, who still remembers Warhol’s parents. His cousins speak proudly of their famous relative, who repeatedly provided for them even in difficult times. For example, they received a shipment of brightly colored pumps that he had painted; one relative says she wore them and eventually threw them away. Even today, they live in great poverty amid high unemployment, and racism toward the Roma population is widespread. A Warhol museum has opened in Medzilaborce, but its director struggles to fund and maintain it. Only a few tourists take an interest in the museum. As a result, the local residents and Warhol’s relatives know no more about Andy Warhol than they did before. They used to think he had painted houses for a living, and even today they deny that he was gay.