Sophie and the Baron is a short documentary about a collaboration between two very different kinds of artists from two different generations. The resulting film is 30 minutes of pure delight. It’s one of the Disney+ People and Places series of documentaries.

Sophie and the Baron puts up and coming artist Sophie Kipner and veteran photographer Baron Wolman together. Sophie creates art using a technique called blind contouring. She takes an image and draws it while not looking at what she’s drawing. Then she shades, colors and contours whatever she drew without looking.

It’s an unusual technique that results in some spectacular art.

Baron is a photographer who was Rolling Stone’s first chief photographer. He photographed many famous people and events. Off to Baron’s left in the photo above, you see an image Sophie made from one of his photographs. You can see more of her work on Instagram.

Sophie visited Baron’s home in Santa Fe and looked through many of his famous photographs. The one she choose to do for this short film was a photograph of the crowd at Woodstock. It’s way down the page on the Instagram page someone keeps up of Baron’s work. (He passed away in 2020.)

Behind Sophie and Baron on the poster, you see her drawing on the left as it merges into his photo on the right.

The film begins with the story of how they met and ends when her drawing from his Woodstock photo is part of an exhibit of her work in Los Angeles. Along the way we see lots of work from both of them and get some sage advice from Baron about following your dreams.

Alexandria Jackson directed the film. It’s definitely worth a look. You’ll find it on Disney+.