1. Balkan Baroque (Balkan baroque)
Balkan Baroque is a real and imaginary biography of the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Rather than a mechanical reproduction of the artist's work, the film tries to create a new reality by translating the performances into cinematographic images that intensify the fictional context of the film. Abramovic plays herself, but ,appearing in multiple forms, blurs her own identity. Memories and fantasies intermingle with day to day rituals. The chronological narrative often breaks to reflect the interior voyage of the protagonist from the present to the past and back to the present. The result is a visually impressive film. Balkan Baroque had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1999.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
2. Rhythm and Sound (Ритам и звук)
National folk dances performed by "Tanec" folk dancers) from Skopje.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
3. Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present
Feature documentary on the pioneering life and work of iconoclastic filmmaker/musician/composer/artist Tony Conrad.
It has an average vote of 7.6 on TMDB.
4. Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
"What we were trying to do was the ultimate form of architecture, which was predicting how society would use space, land and time." Curtis Schreier, ANT FARM Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm is the first film to consider the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm, best known for its iconic land-art piece Cadillac Ranch. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive multidisciplinary work that questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. Incorporating breathtaking archival video, new footage shot over ten years and animation based on zany period sketches, this film is about the joy of creation in a time when there were no limits. —Beth Federici
5. Athens Rising: The Sicyon Project: Volume One
Featuring dozens of performances from the living rooms, backyards, and unconventional venues throughout Athens, GA, the first Athens Rising film takes a deep look at music, dance, food, stand-up comedy, strange theater, visual art, and the origins of AthFest.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
6. Pretend Not to See Me
Life and art intersect on a spectacular Newfoundland farm where visual artist Colette Urban mounts thirteen art performances in the fields and barns of her property. Resilient, determined, self aware and funny, Colette embraces the transformative power of art as she restages the significant art performances of her thirty-year career. With the camera as her audience she transforms the quotidian into a playful world of the imagination with elaborate costumes and idiosyncratic self invented rituals.
7. Diorama
A ritual of transformation and awakening within the walls of the only existing original ‘diorama’ building in London
8. DIVISOR / VILLEURBANNE (DIVISOR / VILLEURBANNE)
Documentation of Lygia Pape’s 1968 performance Divisor - reactivated in the city of Villeurbanne in October 2014. Commissioned by Institut d'Art Contemporain de Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
9. By Rook Or By Left Hook
In 2003, Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh became the first World Champion of Chessboxing. This brain-busting combination of alternating rounds of chess and boxing was in fact an art performance calling for more balance in a world of extremes, and the audience reaction was so electric that it inspired Rubingh to push it as a real sport. Rubingh’s methodical ability to achieve balance in the ring is put to the test outside of it when impulsive British TV Producer Tim Woolgar takes up the sport and his opposing vision for success creates a rift between them, endangering chessboxing’s future.
10. Upaj: Improvise
This is the story of an unlikely friendship. 68 year old Kathak Master Pandit Das and 32 year old tap star Jason Samuels Smith come together in a unique East-meets-West dance collaboration that tours through India: ‘India Jazz Suites.’ As we follow their journey, we learn about their struggles to preserve their traditional heritage in today’s pop culture world.
11. Fall 1
Bas Jan Ader's first fall film shows him seated on a chair, tumbling from the roof of his two-storey house in the Inland Empire.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
12. Fall 2
Bas Jan Ader rides his bike into a canal in Amsterdam.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
13. I'm Too Sad to Tell You
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.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
14. Broken Fall (Geometric)
One of a series of ‘falls’ by Bas Jan Ader that he recorded on film, this work was filmed in West Kapelle, Holland in 1970.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
15. Broken Fall (Organic)
Bas Jan Ader hangs from the branch of a tall tree, until he loses his grip and falls into a river below.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
16. Nightfall
Shot in his garage-studio, the camera records Ader painstakingly hoisting a large brick over his shoulder. His figure is harshly lit by two tangles of light bulbs. He drops the brick, crushing one strand of lights. He again lifts the brick, allowing tension to accrue. The climax inevitable—the brick falls and crushes the second set of lights. Here the film abruptly ends, all illumination extinguished.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
17. Blue Man Group: The Complex Rock Tour Live
Offbeat performance artists The Blue Man Group have finally been captured live on this disc that features concert footage, three full-length music videos and three songs from Blue Man Group's album, "The Complex." The live footage was filmed during Blue Man Group's successful and widely acclaimed August 2003 rock tour, where they wowed 9,000 fans in two sold-out concerts.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
18. Marepe (Marepe)
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.
19. Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History
The history of Hollywood musical movies, from the very beginning until the 21st century, hosted by Shirley Jones.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
20. Stillness in the Wave
The documentary portrayed one of the most established dance companies in Hong Kong which has a history of over four decades. With a tradition of blending Chinese dance and ballet together in the training, the dance company has set sail to re-evaluate its artistic essence by adapting new physical disciplines and philosophy, picking up different cultural traces, meditation and Chinese martial arts. Through monologues of the company members, the film unveiled their fears, self-doubts, and findings in their quest to refine their dance forms and express their cultural roots. It's an uncertain journey towards the cultivation of inner peace and the essence of movement and stillness.