Doc. film ART & CRAFT-A Crafty Charlatan Character Study

Mark Landis is the central figure in this doc. film focusing on Landis' exploits passing off his 1st rate forgeries to major art institutions.  Landis has been "donating" his fak copies of master works to numerous prestigious art institutions for 30 yrs.  He's never been prosecuted.  According to Landis, "I haven't done anything illegal."  He has never accepted remuneration for his paintings.  They are appreciated gratefully having hit on "art's soft spot," acquisitions & endowments.  This lengthy & trying doc. by dir./prod./cinematographer Sam Cullum (The House I Live In; Sundance Grand Jury Prize) is tedious and pales as an entertaining art scandal film.  It relentlessly follows Landis through his squalid aptmt., psychiatric counseling, pathetically lonely, inebriated existence.  We watch his imitating process on canvas & his charades when presenting works as gifts to unsuspecting art institutions that should know better.  The exploration of the motivation or ineptness of these art professionals would have been much more intriguing.  Landis is pursued by a Matt Leninger, a former art registrar in OH who was terminated, perhaps for his relentless investigating of Landis.  Landis' work is given credibility by an extensive exhibit of his forged works entitled FauxReality at a Univ. in OH.  As a performance artist, Landis is an original piece of work.  But as Landis said "There is nothing new under the sun.  Everything goes back to something."  60 Minutes could have done an interesting investigative segment but as a 90 min. doc. it is a stretch & not worth your time or money.