A New Spirit in Painting: 6 Painters of the 1980's

Bas Jan Ader rides his bike into a canal in Amsterdam.

This short film is part of a mixed media artwork of the same name, which also included postcards of Ader crying, sent to friends of his, with the title of the work as a caption. The film was initially ten minutes long, and included Ader rubbing his eyes to produce the tears, but was cut down to three and a half minutes. This shorter version captures Ader at his most anguished. His face is framed closely. There is no introduction or conclusion, no reason given and no relief from the anguish that is presented.

Ich sehe dich und mich - Porträtmalerinnen

Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.

An assessment of the 20th century's best known artist and his vast achievements through the insights and speculations of over a dozen participants. Filmed on the 100th anniversary of Picasso's birth at MoMA, Musée Picasso, Walker Art Center, Museu Picasso Barcelona. Featuring Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rosenblum, Clement Greenberg, Roland Penrose and others.

William Heimdal is one of the most talented young painters in Norway, and wants to master the old classical techniques, but feels he is misunderstood by society, and should have lived in a different time. Is he complex, or is everyone else?

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Matisse's birth and of the exhibition at the Center Pompidou which will be dedicated to him in 2020, this art documentary brings us back to life of the journeys made by Matisse that influenced his art. And particularly his last trip to Polynesia in 1930 which will bring him to the threshold of contemporary art with the invention of his gouache cut-out papers.

A painter, a naked woman, and a camera. In this triple constellation we explore the power of the gaze and the roles it imposes on us. An artist's studio turns into the setting for questions about how we look at and perceive women. The naked skin of the model becomes the canvas for an audiovisual exploration of the ways in which seeing and being seen anchors us in our body. And how this body shapes our experience of the world and our role in it.

The short documentary ‘Complexos‘ features intimate and emotional views on how residents of favelas in Rio de Janeiro use media and arts to raise their voices and act for justice, dignity and respect. ‘Complexos’ is part of a collaborative process between the Finland-based Anti-Racism Media activism Alliance (ARMA Alliance) and the favela-based audiovisual collective Cafuné na Laje.

Rough Cut, the debut feature from London-based artist Jamie Shovlin, explores the re-making of an exploitation film that never was. At its dark heart is Hiker Meat, an archetypal 1970s slasher movie imagined by Shovlin, complete with hitchhiking heroine, charismatic commune leader and a group of teens who disappear one by one. This tantalising film-within-a-film serves to both deconstruct and pay affectionate homage to the often-maligned exploitation style. Having created a full screenplay, score and cut-and-paste prototype for Hiker Meat, Shovlin filmed key sections and a full trailer in an intense shoot in the Lake District in summer 2013. Rough Cut contrasts these re-made sequences with on-set footage and insights into the development of Hiker Meat’s script, soundtrack and design, to create a compelling mash-up of self-referencing processes, behind-the-scenes viewpoints and time-honoured slasher tropes.

An intimate journey through the formative years of David Lynch's life. From his idyllic upbringing in small town America to the dark streets of Philadelphia, we follow Lynch as he traces the events that have helped to shape one of cinema's most enigmatic directors.

Examines the mesmerising construction of clear crystal glass pieces created by the craftsmen of Waterford. The process from the intense heat of the furnace to glass blowing, shaping, cutting, honing, filling and finishing is all depicted in this celebration of the art of creation of Waterford Glass. Academy Award Nominee: Best Live Action Short - 1976.

In this brand new episode, master illusionist and showman Derren Brown plans to pull off the perfect crime. He’s bet renowned art collector Ivan Massow that he can steal a painting from right under his nose. In true Derren style, he will tell Ivan exactly which painting he plans to target – a work by Turner-nominated British brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman no less – as well as what time the theft will happen. He’ll even give him a photograph of the person that’s going to take it.

At the Vienna Art Academy in 1994, an unidentified person painted over 27 works by Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer. Rainer had become world-famous for his abstract art and, in particular, for his over-layering of photographs and overpainting of his own and other artists’ works. But who painted over the “overpainter”? Speculation rages: Did he attack his works himself? A year later, an unsigned letter surfaces claiming responsibility for the act directed against Rainer – and modern art in general – and accusing the artist of being complicit with “destructive modernism.” At the same time, Austria is shaken by a series of mail bombs by the Bajuwarian Liberation Army, in response to the supposed threat to Austria’s “German identity.” Are there connections between the overpainting event and the mail bombs? Or is this all just a game? A dream? Or perhaps a hallucination?

In 1976, the Tate Gallery exhibited an experimental artwork that became a national sensation - Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII, or, to its detractors, 120 bricks laid on the floor. This documentary explores the origins of Andre's work and the extraordinary fallout from its exhibition.

Three restoration students and scholars from all over the world meet in a Palladian villa in view of a conference on Palladio. Meanwhile, in the United States of America, a young university professor asks his mentors, Kenneth Frampton and Peter Eisenman, how to be able to transmit Palladio's humanistic values to the new generations.

Nine artists—dancers, musicians, and visual artists—in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction are transformed by creativity in their search for identity and freedom. Their stories reveal how art has been a ballast while confronting old addictive habits and finding a portal into the aliveness and spiritual connection of art-making from a unique San Francisco perspective.

What happened to painter Beatriz González, who made us laugh with the irony of her works, to get to the point of making a self-portrait that shows her crying naked? The path of the artist is intimately linked with the history of Colombia during the past fifty years.

Immigrant residents of a “shift-bed” apartment in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown share their stories of personal and political upheaval. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals the collective history of the Chinese in the United States through conversations, autobiographical monologues, and theatrical movement pieces. Shot in the kitchens, bedrooms, wedding halls, cafés, and mahjong parlors of Chinatown, this provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy, and urban life.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment is an 18-minute film produced in 1973 by Scholastic Magazines, Inc. and the International Center of Photography. It features a selection of Cartier-Bresson’s iconic photographs, along with rare commentary by the photographer himself.