A look back at John Scoular documentary ‘Marcus Jansen: Examine & Report’
The Fort Myers Film Festival takes place at several Lee County venues March 8-12. One of the films included in this year’s edition is Paradise Reef, a 56-minute documentary directed, filmed and edited by John Scoular. Three years in the making, the documentary follows a visionary’s quest to secure BP disaster funds, rally community support, and deploy 18,000 tons of concrete to create 36 artificial reefs along Florida’s Paradise Coast. Paradise Reef is the third Scoular film to be screened by FMff.
The first was a feature film John wrote while he was a student in the Los Angeles Film School. Produced by Madeline Smith Scoular and Jeremy Robinson of Brickyard Films, Lunatics, Lovers & Poets won six awards at 
film festivals across the country, including Best Screenplay at Methodfest and Best Feature at the Fort Myers Film Festival.
Last year, his documentary Marcus Jansen: Examine & Report was chosen to open the Fort Myers Film Festival at its red carpet gala the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. Not only was the film well received, it was selected as Best Local Film.
Examine & Report explores Jansen’s motives for painting and gives historic insight into his socio-politically charged works, which have roots in Graffiti, Street Art and German and American Expressionism. The documentary was shot 
during 2015 at locations in New York, Miami, London and Fort Myers and is now an integral part of Jansen’s museum and DECADE book tour, which opened in 2016 in Milan, Italy.
“This is pretty cool,” said Scoular, visibly moved by the award. “We’re very grateful that we got the opportunity to show it here first. Listen, this was the best opening we could ever imagine.”
Not only does the documentary provide insight into Jansen’s life and art, it furnishes an introduction to the uninitiated into the larger world of contemporary art by means of a series of interviews that Scoular 
conducted with art world luminaries including Steve Lazarides (who was street artist BANKSY’s first agent), Lawrence Voytek (who was Robert Rauschenberg protégé and decades-long gallery director), West Rubinstein, Noah Becker, Dieter Rampl and Brooke Lynn McGowan (an art historian, curator and writer who is recognized worldwide as the leading expert on Jansen’s works).
“I feel fortunate that all these people so generously shared their expertise with me and [everyone who views the film],” Scoular acknowledged.
Special footage includes revealing interviews with Jansen along with peeks of the artist at work.
“I just tried to stay out of the way of the film, which kind of told its own story,” Scoular humbly told the small crowd that gathered at the Broadway Palm Dinner 
Theater for the FMff champagne dessert and awards ceremony. “We’re very lucky to witness Marcus’ rise. He’s gone from [selling his art on] Prince Street in New York to museums in Milan, Germany and beyond. He’s at the top of his game, and he gets to enjoy it while he’s still alive. That’s pretty unprecedented.”
The film is being screened at each stop in Jansen’s tw0-year worldwide museum tour, which wraps up later this year. Scoular is trying to get it shown in New York, as well. The film will not only play a pivotal role in familiarizing art lovers, collectors and professionals around the globe with Jansen and 
his art, it will build upon the reputation that the legendary Robert Rauschenberg began when he made Captiva the site of his international headquarters and working studio and the loci of the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI), an initiative that Rauschenberg launched in 1982 for purposes of forging communication with other nations through the language of art by 
providing carefully-selected venues where artists, sculptors, poets and authors from around the world could meet and exchange creative ideas in the spirit of collaboration.
If you saw and loved Marcus Jansen: Examine & Report, you’ll definitely want to see Paradise Reef. It won a local Emmy this past December.
- Overview of the 7th Annual Fort Myers Film Festival
Why you should see ‘Paradise Reef’- Meet ‘Paradise Reef’ writer and director John Scoular
- A word or two about Everglades fine art photographer Clyde Butcher
- Meet ‘Paradise Reef’ cinematographer and commentator Andy Brandy Casagrande IV
- Meet ‘Paradise Reef’ underwater still photographer Emma Casagrande
- Lake O discharge documentary, ‘Black Tide,’ to open Fort Myers Film Festival
Meet ‘Black Tide’ writer, director and producer Steven Johnson- Read what ‘Black Tide’ filmmaker Steven Johnson has to say about his documentary
- How the Everglades, Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie got so bad
- Why you should see ‘Bubbles’
- How ‘Bubbles’ got made
- Meet ‘Bubbles’ screenwriter and maniacal clown Cesar Aguilera
- Why you should see ‘The Radical Jew’
‘Radical Jew’ awards and accolades- Why you should see ‘The Stairs’
- Why the filmmakers made ‘The Stairs’
- Why you should see ‘Three Wishes’ at this year’s Fort Myers Film Festival
- Meet ‘Three Wishes’ writer, director and producer Curtis Collins
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.