1. Bone Wind Fire
A journey into the hearts, minds and eyes of Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo - three of the 20th century’s most remarkable artists.
2. The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon (De man die achter de horizon keek)
More than 40 years ago, Bas Jan Ader decided to go on an adventure. In a tiny sailing boat, the Dutchman set sail across the ocean. Nine months later the boat was found adrift at sea. There was no sign of Ader. It’s a story that has always fascinated filmmaker Martijn Blekendaal, not just because of the disappearance itself, but also because of the entire mystery that surrounds it. Blekendaal embarks on an investigation that follows his footsteps to Hollywood. It turns out that, in order to understand what drove this man to his fateful voyage, the filmmaker has to overcome his fear of looking beyond his own horizon. In a whirlwind montage of images jumping from one time, place and person to another, Blekendaal shows us that Bas Jan left behind something more special than just a mystery.
3. A Test of Violence
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.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
4. Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe appears on camera for the first time to talk candidly about her work and her life in this 1977 documentary.
5. David Lynch: The Art Life
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.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
6. Blood of Two
The first collaboration between Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton, Blood of Two is a unique, site-specific work that draws its references from Hydra itself – the surrounding environment, animals, humans, and local traditions are all part of the project in equal measure.</p><p> Blood of Two centers on the former function of the Slaughterhouse and the customs of Hydra to establish connections between paganism and religion, ancient and modern, the ritualistic and familiar. As much as its conflicted terms strive for balance and fusion, it is Blood of Two’s greater resistance to these impulses, its failure to surrender unconditionally to them that ultimately counts, as a network of overlaps and crisscrosses.
7. Bronwyn Oliver: The Shadows Within
This intimate documentary follows the journey of Bronwyn Oliver, a working-class girl from the country who became one of Australia's most influential contemporary sculptors.
8. Unprovoked: A Creative Process
Artist Taylor Denise sets out to make her first painting, which also happens to be her largest work to-date. As she embarks on this creative process of making shit because it looks cool, she's met with comradery, debauchery, and people's brains interrupting art whatever way they want to-ery.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
9. Basquiat, Une Vie
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Soho to Greenwich, Union Square to Wall Street... Join us and the friends, collaborators and gallery owners who supported Jean-Michel Basquiat throughout his life. The first ever recognized graffiti artist, who saw international success as a neo-expressionist painter in the 80s, Basquiat is a true contemporary hero who died at the peak of his career.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
10. The Thought Of Art (El pensamiento del arte)
Research and dissemination documentary-film about contemporary art in which more than 30 staff members of museums and galleries, visual and sound artists, collectors, art critics and curators share their knowledge and give an account of their experiences and anecdotes.
11. Magritte: The False Mirror
Introduces the world of painter René Magritte through an assemblage of the painter's images. Includes statements by Magritte about his intentions and anecdotes from his friends Mesens and Scutenaire.
12. MAU WAL - Translated Encounters (MAU WAL - Encontros Traduzidos)
Maurício Dias & Walter Riedweg often say the streets are their studio. From the observation of them and of those who populate them there arise installations about encounters, identity and territoriality. The Brazilian-born Dias met the Swiss Riedweg in 1993. Together they learned that they could boost one another’s ideas. “This marriage became Mau Wal,” says Dias. In this documentary, they present their works and the many characters behind them: people who make day-to-day living in the big cities. Street vendors at a Northeast Brazilian fair in São Paulo, illegal immigrants in their quest for the European dream, street kids and their memories. In stories or in the role it plays, the human element is always a centerpiece to the duo’s work.
13. Rough Cut
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.
14. Conquest of Light
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.
15. Bomb It
Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on five continents, the documentary tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.
It has an average vote of 6.9 on TMDB.
16. Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition
With loans from across the world, this major retrospective will bring together Vermeer’s most famous masterpieces including Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Geographer, The Milkmaid, The Little Street, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, and Woman Holding a Balance. This film invites audiences to a private view of the exhibition, accompanied by the director of the Rijksmuseum and the curator of the show.
It has an average vote of 7.8 on TMDB.
17. Georgia O'Keeffe: Painter of the Far West (Georgia O'Keeffe, une artiste au Far-West)
Enlightened by her biographer Roxana Robinson and art historian Barbara Buhler Lynes, co-founder of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, this documentary unfolds the fascinating trajectory of the artist who became an icon of American art. Featuring her works, her confidences - between interviews and excerpts of correspondence read by Charlotte Rampling - and her husband's photographs, this film explores the two inseparable passions that marked Georgia O'Keeffe's life and career: Alfred Stieglitz and New Mexico, which she never ceased to travel through, like a pioneer, in order to immerse herself in its Indian culture and its grandiose landscapes.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
18. Las Muralistas: Our Walls, Our Stories
Las Muralistas features women muralists whose works cover the walls of San Francisco’s Mission District. The muralism movement that emerged in the 1970s in the Mission District marked the beginning of a tradition of activism, expression, and community building through public art.
19. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Monumental Art
In the summer of 2018, on the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park, world-renowned artist Christo created his first public work of art in the UK. Inspired by ancient Mesopotamian tombs, the Mastaba is constructed from 7,506 painted oil barrels and weighs six hundred tonnes. It is the latest work in a career spanning half a century and stretching across the world. His work to date have included surrounding 11 islands off the Florida coast with pink polypropylene and wrapping Berlin's Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris. This programme charts the creation of the Mastaba - from the first barrels being put on the water to its final unveiling - and paints a portrait of Christo as he looks back on a life spent making provocative works of art with his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude.
20. Ugly Beauty
Documentary in which art critic Waldemar Januszczak argues that beauty is still to be found in modern art, despite several recent books claiming the contrary.
