Finding jo:

a documentary

Josephine "Jo" Verstille Hopper’s Self Portrait

what is this?

Finding Jo is a short experimental documentary telling the story of the artist Josephine "Jo" Verstille Hopper, formerly Jo Nivison, who was also the partner, manager, and model for the painter Edward Hopper. For this process, I created a chorus of artist voices as narrator after crafting a script from Jo’s diaries and personal letters. The words are hers, arranged by me. The project screened with flüg for their Works-In-Progress series.

why am I doing this?

I was formerly employed as the Chief Storyteller for Edward Hopper’s childhood archive, coincidentally two blocks away from my childhood home. The mythology of Edward Hopper haunted my youth: I learned to draw by going to live figure sketches in his former living room, my mother gave me prints of his paintings of the Hudson River, and I selected Morning Sun as my laptop background throughout college and graduate school. Part of my job was enforcing a public narrative about his life, the boy genius and master of realism. Yet I realized how much was buried about the social factors of his success. 

When I began to read more about the tumultuous marriage of Edward and Jo, former classmates and fellow painters, I was fascinated by her life. I started a feature screenplay, Two Comedians, inspired by their relationship. I traced her artistry and its intersection with Edward’s: she went from showcasing with Man Ray and Picasso to managing her husband’s affairs, suffering abuse, neglect, and self-hatred. In one letter, Jo referred to her paintings, once the center of her life, as “pitifully female.” 

As I spent more time in her archive, noticing how similar her subjects and compositions were to Edward’s when she did paint, I felt enraged at the story spun about her as a jealous, untalented artist turned model and manager. A former friend of the Hoppers all but blamed Jo for Edward’s death in The New York Times, citing her reliance on canned food and denial of Edward’s aggressive sexual advances. I wanted her to be seen as more than a muse. 

why me?

I began reporting on Jo’s life in 2019 for Edward Hopper’s hometown newspaper. The series, dispatches from the archive, continued for two years and was later republished by The Los Angeles Review of Books. To bring in more voices and perspectives on her life, I hosted a series of public writing workshops centered on restoring Jo’s legacy, More Than a Muse, with the goal of chipping away at the dominant narrative about the Hopper marriage and Jo’s positioning as a lesser artist. Since then, I was invited to give public talks on Jo’s artistic journey, including at the Attleboro Arts Museum in September 2024 where I screened a clip of Finding Jo.

why now?

In addition to this documentary, my feature screenplay inspired by the Hopper marriage, Two Comedians, was announced in May 2024 as a selection for the Big Apple Film Festival. My interest in telling this story evolves from my previous projects—in 2021, I wrote, directed, produced, and edited a documentary, Patricia, which profiles a textile artist and writer. This project was followed by an artist studio talk I co-produced with Liliane Tomasko, Sean Scully, and Phong H. Bui inspired by the Hoppers and their two-artist marriage. I then made the narrative short film, Final Curtain Call, about a queer musician who became the Chief Organist at Radio City Music Hall. The story was set in the same New York in which the Hoppers lived and created their art (1920-1970s). Final Curtain Call premiered at Cinema Village in 2022 and was selected for an Academy-qualifying screening in Los Angeles in 2023. Finding Jo evolves from these projects and builds upon them.

then what?

The themes of Finding Jo are in conversation with my first film, The University, which is now used as a training tool across the country for gender justice in educational spaces and inside of restorative justice processes designed to support survivors as well as perpetrators of sexual violence. I intend for Finding Jo to be an offering towards imagining a landscape for all artists to thrive within. I believe that in finding Jo, we may find parts of our own being that long to be seen.

Copyright © Juliana Roth, 2024. All Rights Reserved.