Janina Ramirez explores the BBC archives to create a TV history of Leonardo Da Vinci, discovering what lies beneath the Mona Lisa and even how he acquired his anatomical knowledge.
Elliott Erwitt has spent his entire adult life taking photographs, of presidents, popes and movie stars, as well as regular people and their pets. His work is iconic in world culture while his life is largely unknown.
Artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss create the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine. The pair used found objects to construct a complex, interdependent contraption in an empty warehouse. When set in motion, a domino-like chain reaction ripples through the complex of imaginative devices. Fire, water, the laws of gravity, and chemistry determine the life-cycle of the objects. The process reveals a story concerning cause and effect, mechanism and art, and improbability and precision, in an extended science project that will mesmerize the mind.
"Nocturnes at the Golden Gate" - invites us to discover the world and work of Irina Ionesco, a unique figure of contemporary photography. Since the early 70's, she photographer has been working in her apartment near the Porte Dorée, in Paris, principally with the female body. Scraps from the past and elements of the present come together to evoke the coherence and multiple meanings of Irina's baroque universe : the solitude of her Romanian childhood ; her youthful debut in the music hall ; her relationships with her models and her way of building images. Little by little, her work is illuminated and takes on different vibrations, though we have never left the apartment : her workspace, temple and museum.
Marepe, an artist from Bahia, produces art with anything he comes across in the town he lives in, Santo Antônio de Jesus. Packs of cigarettes, coconut palms, walls, and memories taken from the streets, go into putting together a personal archeology for this young artist.
A journey through four hundred paintings, all masterpieces, among the more than nine thousand treasured in the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.
During the 2012 season, two Montana High School teams compete in 6-man football, a smaller version of American football with increasing popularity in rural communities. It's pure football, for the sake of football, played by boys of all sizes and abilities, for themselves and for the communities who know them oh so well. No television timeouts. No place to sit. Six Man Football.
Commentator-comic Bill Maher plays devil's advocate with religion as he talks to believers about their faith. Traveling around the world, Maher examines the tenets of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and raises questions about homosexuality, proof of Christ's existence, Jewish Sabbath laws, violent Muslim extremists.
In subarctic Norway in a storm the sun projects shadows of clouds on a mountain forest.
The world’s museums are closed. What are you missing? Take a real-time walk through the Louvre towards the “greatest painting ever” and contemplate what it would be like to be there yourself.
A portrait of the artist as a "sublime demon with the archangel's face", with an innovative musique concrète soundtrack.
Fifteen naturally mummified bodies were found during the excavations of 2011 in the old church of El Piquete, —a building that suffered almost total devastation as a consequence for being a refuge for civilians during the Spanish Civil War—, this discovery allowed the creation of the Museum of the Mummies of Quinto where this collection with unique characteristics in Spain is exhibited thanks to the research of historians, scientists, bio anthropologists and archaeologists.
Morgan Spurlock subjects himself to a diet based only on McDonald's fast food three times a day for thirty days without exercising to try to prove why so many Americans are fat or obese. He submits himself to a complete check-up by three doctors, comparing his weight along the way, resulting in a scary conclusion.
‘Under the Weight of a Waking Dream’ is Zefier's debut swan song to the ending year. Comprised of poetry and endless enumerations is a diaristic film chronicling the lessons and contradictions found throughout the human experience.
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'Hard Twist' is a documentary about the life of the famous western photographer, Barbara Van Cleve. Barbara is a fifth-generation Montanan with a century of family history going back to the early 1900s, when her family settled in the Crazy Mountain area. Upon their arrival in Montana, the Van Cleves began operating a dude ranch, where Barbara grew up and spent most of her summers as an adult. Barbara's story offers insight into a hardy western ranching lifestyle many have not experienced, with striking archive footage of early Montana. This film is not only about Barbara's life, but tells a story of how her family history was intertwined with the changing landscape of the West.
A new, original documentary from Connecticut Public, Fake: Searching for Truth in the Age of Misinformation, takes on this topic, just in time for the 2020 election season. Viewers will learn how and why misinformation spreads, and how to be a smarter information consumer in our increasingly digital world.
Decolonising the Curatorial Process is a forty-minute documentary which explores decolonial strategies in an academic and curatorial context. The film features academics, activists and practitioners, and contains case studies of institutions that are deploying critical, self-reflective forms of curatorial practice. The Museum of London Docklands exhibition on slavery and the sugar industry is examined as an example of how an institution can decolonise the curatorial process, utilise the work of artists in a museum context, and critically examine East London's imperial history. The Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, who are working with Maasai activists from Kenya and Tanzania on a project centred on repatriating the museum's collection of sacred Maasai artefacts, also features in the film.
Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1977 to 2008, guides viewers through The Cloisters, pointing out Romanesque and Gothic architecture and artwork, beautiful tapestries, and the diverse species in the gardens. He outlines the history of the building and it's many influences and highlights significant works of art in the collection. It was produced in 1989 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Office of Film and Television.
A dazzling journey through time via the remarkable images of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting and his epic "LIFE" project, which presents a stunning interpretation of life on Earth, from the Big Bang through the present.