Artists on Film: In a Dream

When he was making a documentary about his father, the late Isaiah Zagar, who was perhaps the most important mosaic folk artist in America, filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar got the bright idea to ask Dad to tell him a secret. Caught off guard, the elder Zagar blurted out that he'd been having an affair with his female assistant for three years. This news, wonderfully dramatic for the documentary, did not go over well with Zagar's saintly wife, who, needless to say, raised holy hell and demanded a divorce after 43 years of marriage.

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More About

• Jeremiah Zagar
• Isaiah Zagar
• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Visual Arts

As if all that drama weren't enough to make the resulting documentary, In a Dream, worth watching, there are also all of Zagar's marvelous mosaics to ponder. More than 50,000 square feet of south Philadelphia are covered by his dreamy, personal works, which are composed of broken pieces of mirror, pottery shards and found objects like bottles and bicycles. In a Dream proves that the sum of Zagar's rich, turbulent life really is more than its parts. 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org/films. $6 to $7.
Fri., June 19, 7 p.m.; Sat., June 20, 7 p.m.; Sun., June 21, 3 p.m., 2009