Visages, villages

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Kandinsky

Colour, form, area - this is the formula of the greatest pioneer of abstract painting. Kandinsky came to art late in life, but his impact through Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) and Bauhaus paved the way for modern art. In 1913, he created one of the first abstract pictures, the theoretical basis of which was inspired by his essay Uber das Geistige in der Kunst (On the Spiritual in Art). Accompanied by Mussorgsky's Pictures From An Exhibition Labarthe goes on a sensual journey which makes the soul resound with colours and forms. "A picture has to resound and must be bathed in an inner glow." Kandinsky

Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box

This is a 1991 documentary film about the legendary artist and filmmaker, Joseph Cornell, who made those magnificent and strange collage boxes. He was also one of our great experimental filmmakers and once apparently made Salvador Dali extremely jealous at a screening of his masterpiece, Rose Hobart. In this film we get to hear people like Susan Sontag, Stan Brakhage, and Tony Curtis talk about their friendships with the artist. It turns out that Curtis was quite a collector and he seemed to have a very deep understanding of what Cornell was doing in his work.

Cindy Sherman: Nobody's Here But Me

New York based artist, Cindy Sherman, is famous for her photographs of women in which she is not only the photographer, but also the subject. She has contributed her own footage to the programme by recording her studio and herself at work with her Hi-8 video camera. It reveals a range of unexpected sources from visceral horror to medical catalogues and exploitation movies, and explores her real interests and enthusiasms. She shows an intuitive and often humorous approach to her work, and reflects on the themes of her work since the late 1970s. She talks about her pivotal series known as the `Sex Pictures' in which she addresses the theme of sexuality in the light of AIDS and the arts censorship debate in the United States.

Laerte-se

In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.

Identita: Film o českém grafickém designu

The documentary maps more than a hundred years of Czech visual culture, offers stories of well-known and lesser-known brands and shows that top graphic art is still being created in the Czech Republic today. The film is guided by Nicho Lowry, an American native with Czech roots, an avid collector and graphic design lover who embarks on an adventurous journey in the footsteps of the best of Czech visual culture. During his journey, he meets a number of contemporary graphic designers, as well as the legacy of icons who have passed away, many of whom have succeeded abroad. The film will lead Nich to his own roots through the uncovering of Czech identity and will introduce Czech graphic design to those who do not know the Czech Republic.

Bilder einer Ausstellung

What does modern art mean for ordinary visitors to an exhibition?

The Art of Warez

The rise and fall of ANSI art in the 1980s and early 90s. ANSI graphics were made from small rectangles. There were 256 rectangles to choose from - 4 density patterns and 16 colors per pattern.

Empire of the Nude: The Victorian Nude

The Victorian era is often cited for its lack of sexuality, but as this documentary reveals, the period's artists created a strong tradition surrounding the classical nude figure, which spread from the fine arts to more common forms of expression. The film explains how 19th-century artists were inspired by ancient Greek and Roman works to highlight the naked form, and how that was reflected in the evolving cultural attitudes toward sex.

In the Theatre of the Gogs

A contemplation of art and adventure in the southern wilds of New Zealand by both a landscape photographer and an adventure filmmaker. This film is the unexpected result of their two unique perspectives.

Haida Gwaii: Restoring the Balance

The conflict over forestry operations on Lyell Island in 1985 was a major milestone in the history of the re-emergence of the Haida Nation. It was a turning point for the Haida and management of their natural resources.

在りし日のカーブル博物館1988年

The Kabul National Museum, once known as the "face of Afghanistan," was destroyed in 1993. We filmed the most important cultural treasures of the still-intact museum in 1988: ancient Greco-Roman art and antiquitied of Hellenistic civilization, as well as Buddhist sculpture that was said to have mythology--the art of Gandhara, Bamiyan, and Shotorak among them. After the fall of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1992, some seventy percent of the contents of the museum was destroyed, stolen, or smuggled overseas to Japan and other countries. The movement to return these items is also touched upon. The footage in this video represents that only film documentation of the Kabul Museum ever made.

Robert Morris: Retrospective

This retrospective exhibition gives brilliant insight into the artist’s work of the last 4 decades. Credit for this highly sensitive selection of Morris’ work goes to Rosalind Krauss, who curated the exhibition. We invited artist and curator to come back to the Guggenheim Museum for a second look at the exhibition. The filmed walk-through gives a vivid sense of the artist’s progress and documents the views of the artist and Rosalind Krauss, one of the most significant critics of our time.

Pierre Bonnard: A Love Exposed

The tender and tragic love story of French painter Pierre Bonnard and his wife and lifelong model Marthe. The artist recorded their relationship on canvas and, 50 years after his death, these paintings have established him as one of the masters of colour and light.

The Original Richard McMahan

The multi-talented outsider artist Richard McMahan is on a quest to painstakingly re-create thousands of famous and not-so-famous paintings and artifacts–in miniature.

The Art of Incarceration

Narrated by Uncle Jack Charles and seen through the eyes of Indigenous prisoners at Victoria’s Fulham Correctional Centre, this documentary explores how art and culture can empower Australia's First Nations people to transcend their unjust cycles of imprisonment.

Manet: Portraying Life

Manet’s portraits are rarely afforded such close attention as they are given in this exquisitely crafted and insightful film presented by art expert Tim Marlow. Manet’s portraiture comprised about half his work, giving life on canvas to family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of the day.

Habiter le mouvement (un récit en 10 chapitres)

Careless Reef part 2: Abu Kiffan

Abu Kiffan is the name of a reef near Safaga in Egypt. In the film we are drowned in sound, time slows down and we are given a closer look at what’s going on. Part two of Holthuis’ series Careless Reef, four films about the world under water.

Poster Boys

How the Costacos Brothers built a wall art empire.