A portrait of the day-to-day operations of the National Gallery of London, that reveals the role of the employees and the experiences of the Gallery's visitors. The film portrays the role of the curators and conservators; the education, scientific, and conservation departments; and the audience of all kinds of people who come to experience it.
‘de waanzin van het detail’ paints a portrait of the contemporary painter sam dillemans. To dillemans, who lives in borgerhout, van gogh, picasso, rubens or goya are not painters of yesterday but of today. They inspire him on a daily basis and at the same time their crushing genius also depresses him. In addition to being a very talented artist sam dillemans is so a gifted storyteller. While working on a self-portrait in his studio, he talks about his life and his work, how it relates to cultural history, the sacrifices painting demands and how people can learn to interpret paintings.
Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment
This fascinating exploration of the creative process follows one of Australia's leading contemporary artists Ben Quilty, as he completes one of his most challenging art works.
Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.
94-year old Esther, a pensioner with bad sight, is in search of her artist daugther’s public decoration. Endless phone conversations takes her through municipal bureaucracy and lost culture secretaries. Will she ever get an answer to the eternal question: Where does the art really go?
Cleto Rojas, a peasant painter in Venezuela, discusses his artwork. From movies and Roman mythology to his own dreams and scenes of rural life, Rojas takes inspiration from all sources and transforms the world around him into fantastic visions. He teaches village children his technique of using house-paint on canvas, as his wife goes about her own housework, singing slowly. The painter is bemused by the attention of anthropologists and art critics, and he talks about the pitfalls of attention. He remembers traveling to Caracas as a young man to meet famous painters and being disappointed in them. His ambitions are more focused on the content of his work - Rojas wishes he could envision and paint one of Venezuela's heroes, Simon Boilvar, as he really was, as no accurate representations exist now. Without looking for fame, he continues painting all kinds of images as he sees them.
The extraordinary story of the Melbourne community campaign that put a stop to the $18billion East Wast toll road link.
Tell Them We Were Here is an inspirational feature-length documentary about eight artists who show us why art is vital to a healthy society and reminds us that we are stronger together.
A study of artist Andy Goldsworthy’s work in Scotland and Japan.
50 years on, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is the oldest continuing protest occupation site in the world. Taking a fresh lens this is a bold dive into a year of protest and revolutionary change for First Nations people.
This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.
This film programme highlights queer struggles and the history of the Pride movement in Sweden, from 1981 until today. Features 8 short films: Gay Liberation Week, Stockholm (1981); Gay Liberation Week, Gothenburg (1984); A Year of Sisterhood – Interview with Fitt 4 Fight & Queer Feminist March, Stockholm (2005); Lesbian festival, Gothenburg (2005); Anti-marriage Action, Gothenburg (2010); Candle-manifestation, Gothenburg (2012); Actions from Queersvall, Sundvall (2019); Sápmi Pride, Gironis (2014).
Plastic artist Aparicio Arthola talks with his student about the catarsis in his creative process, the loss, death and uncertainty of art life in Nicaragua
A short film with shots of sculptures by Anneke Walvoort. The materiality of film plays an important role: visible grain, flashes of colour, unexpected camera movements.
Ulrike Ottinger weaves her personal memories of Parisian bohemianism and the serious social, political and cultural upheavals of the time into a cinematic “figure poem.”
Short documentary about artist Keith Haring, detailing his involvement in the New York City graffiti subculture, his opening of the Pop Shop, and the social commentary present in his paintings and drawings.
In Pablo Picasso's career, a blue and pink period gets the attention they deserve. It is between 1901 and 1907 that the seeds of all his future work lie, for it is then that Picasso turned his back on his father's teachings and broke free from academic constraints and himself at the beginning with everything that crossed his path. This documentary takes a look at Picasso's various metamorphoses, shaped by a struggle between zest for life and dark thoughts. A world shared by his friend Jaime Sabartés, who wrote it in a collection of memoirs. Art documentary (2018) by Gaëlle Royer.
Tells the history of skateboard art and its evolution through the decades, as iconic and rebellious skateboarders and artists give firsthand experiences and stories about their art that challenged the establishment.
Documentary celebrating the LGBTQ contribution to the arts in Britain in the 50 years since decriminalisation. It features interviews with leading figures from right across the arts in Britain, including Stephen Fry, David Hockney, Sir Antony Sher, Alan Cumming, Sandi Toksvig, Jeanette Winterson, Will Young and Alan Hollinghurst, and it explores the distinctive perspectives and voices that LGBT artists have brought to British cultural life.