Colin McCahon: I AM

The documentary Colin McCahon: I AM traces the life of artist Colin McCahon, examining the New Zealand cultural context that influenced and inspired his work and his artistic development. The documentary begins with a bleak narration from the Old Testament, Book of Ecclesiastes, accompanied by an image of what is thought to be McCahon's final work, I Considered All the Acts of Oppression. The documentary returns to this painting and continues its narration from the Book of Ecclesiastes at the end of the film.

I counted the dead happy because they were dead. Happier than the living who were still in life. More fortunate than either, I reckoned man yet unborn, who had not witnessed the wicked deeds done here under the sun.

Some suggest that these words express McCahon's own loss of faith in God and perhaps even in humanity. Others see it as a continuation of his life-long mission to provoke us to think about our own moral, ethical and spiritual values.

With this narrative construction, it is as if the story of his life remains contained within this painting, and the audience at the end is left no wiser, pondering the universal questions and concerns of humanity that Colin McCahon explored through the medium of painting.