Cormorant

Standing near the reptile section in a zoo we can learn a lot about the animals on both sides of the separating glass.

An immersion into the surreal and dreamlike world of painter, photographer and filmmaker Man Ray (1890-1976), one of the most prolific American visual artists, through four of his short films, brought to life by the atmospheric music of SQÜRL.

Stuart Cooper's short about the work of Spanish artist Juan Genovés is an inspired introduction to the works of this extraordinary artist, exploring its minimalist aesthetic and storytelling qualities through a variety of cinematic techniques, including rostrum, animation, news footage and live action recreations.

Seemayer Studios presents a new documentary about the American Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and the Arts District that surrounds it. Since 1979, the American Hotel has been the beating heart of a rich community of artists who began moving into the deserted factory buildings between Alameda and the Los Angeles River.

Writes Ando, "Oh! My Mother was the first work I made using a newly bought 16mm camera I had purchased with the writer Shuji Terayama in Paris. This piece was selected for the Oberhausen International Film Festival. In 1969, there were, of course, no video cameras like ones we see now, and color TVs were only found at broadcast television studios. I had just been employed at the TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System), and I often snuck into the studios after hours to experiment with the equipment. Oh! My Mother was made using the feedback effect, which is produced by infinitely expanding the image by looping the video."

After his mother's death, a young man edits the family's home videos to bring back her image. As he delves into the occult he begins to reveal the paradoxical magic of memories and cinema.

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.

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.

La Rodilla del Diablo

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

"When Mollie's routine between a real and surreal gets interrupted by an uncalled visitor, the line between reality and dream blurs."

Filmed over three years, the documentary is an unprecedented record of a major artist at work. It captures David Hockney's return to England after 25 years in California. As he approaches the age of 70, he decides to re-invent his painting from scratch, working through the seasons and in all weathers out in the Yorkshire countryside - ending up with the largest picture ever made outdoors. It is at once the story of a homecoming and an intimate portrait of what inspires and motivates today's greatest living British-born artist as time runs out. Winner of Best Essay award at the International Festival for Films on Art in Montreal and nominated Best Arts Documentary by the Grierson and International Emmy Awards. Premiered on BBC1, the documentary appears in a special extended 60' version.

Andrew Marr interviews David Hockney about his exhibition A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy, made up of works depicting the landscape of his native Yorkshire.

The extraordinary work of the American artist Philip Guston is a milestone in modern painting. Guston is one of the most discussed painters of his time and today a star of the younger generation of contemporary artists. ARTE is showing the documentary on the occasion of the major Guston retrospective at the Tate Modern in London.

Two people attempt to connect over a great distance.

Guinart, el Asesino del Pincel

"[Hutton’s] latest urban film, New York Portrait, Chapter III, takes on a unique tone in relation to Hutton’s ongoing exploration of rural landscape. The very fact that Hutton is dealing with older footage, with archives of memory more than immediacy, gives it a different texture than his earlier New York films. Hutton always found the presence of nature in the city, not only in his many shots of sky and vegetation, but also in the geometry and texture of the city itself, which seemed to project an independence from the human." (Tom Gunning)

Looby is the story of what happens when an artist chooses to speak out. For Australian painter Keith Looby, it cost him almost everything. Winner of prestigious art prizes and collected by major galleries at home and abroad, Keith's addiction to speaking his mind has left a string of failed business relationships, marriages and friendships. Bludgeoned into coherence by the film-makers, assessed by dealers, curators, critics and fellow artists, Looby is a chance to look at a brilliant artist who had his moment in the sun, and to ask whether he should have another.

Dynamite, tête de poisson!