A new IMAX documentary follows the N.B.A.’s great shooter through the night he made history from beyond the arc.
There is a particular hush in an arena just before Stephen Curry shoots, a half-second in which twenty thousand people seem to agree to stop breathing. “Portrait of an Artist,” a new documentary, is an attempt to stretch that half-second into a feature film.
The film arrives with Curry, the league’s M.V.P., on the verge of a number no player had ever reached: 4,000 career three-pointers. It follows him in the days leading up to a single game and then through it, and it is interested less in the arithmetic than in the person doing the adding. Curry reflects on his upbringing, his mindset, and the work ethic behind a career that changed how the sport is played.
The filmmakers have chosen to treat him as something other than an athlete. Viola Davis, Rick Rubin, Patti Smith and Jon Batiste, four people who know something about the pursuit of craft, offer their own readings of what Curry does. The court, in this telling, is a canvas. Chopra, the film’s director, says the goal was to capture a player and artist who is never quite finished, always reaching for the next masterpiece, and to show the creativity and discipline that sit underneath the highlights.
The production was not modest. Twenty-one IMAX-certified cameras covered the game, which ended at Chase Center, where Curry passed the milestone against the Sacramento Kings.
For Curry and Erick Peyton, his partner at Unanimous Media, the point was never the record alone. They wanted viewers to feel what it is like to watch him in real time, a gift meant especially for those who have never had the chance to be in the building, and may never have it.
The film opens in IMAX theaters across the country, then streams on the ESPN App and Disney+ beginning Nov. 10. ABC will air a special presentation on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 1 p.m. Eastern.
