1. Re-enacment
For this work Alÿs purchased a gun in Mexico City then walked through the city streets with the weapon in his hand. After eleven minutes he was arrested by the police. The following day he repeated the action, this time in cooperation with the police. By presenting a record of this dramatic action alongside footage of its reenactment, Alÿs blurs the boundaries between documentation and fiction. Questioning the concept of authenticity, this work demonstrates “how media can distort and dramatize the immediate reality of a moment,” the artist has said. Gallery label from Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, May 8–August 1, 2011.
2. The Impressionists: And the Man Who Made Them
Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir: some of the world’s most popular artists. Their works, and that of their contemporaries, fetch tens of millions of dollars around the globe. But who were they really? Why & how exactly did they paint? What lies behind their enduring appeal? To help answer these questions, this unique film secured unparalleled access to a major exhibition focussing on the man credited with inventing impressionism as we know it: 19th-century Parisian art collector Paul Durand-Ruel. This eagerly anticipated international exhibition is possibly the most comprehensive exploration of the Impressionists in history.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
3. The Da Vinci Code: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
After Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism charges, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted a fictional story to make such an effective challenge to conventional history that it has forced a counter-attack from the Church, the art world and academics. Has Brown cracked the most difficult code of all our 21st-century cultural DNA?
4. Bloed (Bloed)
Elles Kiers and Sjef Meijman lived intensively with four Bunte Bentheimer pigs for seven months. During the slaughter month they had their beloved pig Bom killed and then prepared it themselves. The short documentary Blood follows the visual artists in the final phase of their research project into the origin of our food. A valuable ritual unfolds around the processing of this animal.
5. The Lost Leonardo
London, England, 2008. Some of the most distinguished experts on the work of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci gather at the National Gallery to examine a painting known as Salvator Mundi; an event that turns out to be the first act of one of the most fascinating stories in the history of art.
It has an average vote of 7.025 on TMDB.
6. Wild Art: Olly & Suzi
Documentary following Olly Williams and Suzi Winstanley, two unique wildlife artists who simultaneously work on the same painting of exotic and endangered animals while on location in the wildest corners of the world. The film shows how they work and why what they do is so important.
7. Kill Your TV: Jim Moir’s Weird World of Video Art
Jim Moir explores Video Art, revealing how different generations ‘hacked’ the tools of television to pioneer new ways of creating art that can be beautiful, bewildering and wildly experimental.
8. Hello My Dear (Merhaba Canım)
The documentary is titled after Arkadaş Z. Özger’s poem “Hello My Dear” which had caused much controversy in the period it was first published. Considered to be in defiance of heteronormativity, the said poem includes references to the poet’s personality, his family, his relationship to the society, and his “unexpected” death, which came three years after its publication. Today, 50 years after it was written, the documentary follows these same lines in the poem utilising cinematic elements. The documentary also rediscovers the poetics; reaches out to the family, the comrades, the friendships, departing from the official historical accounts, cognizant of his experience of otherness, in pursuit of the “lost” portrait of Arkadaş Z. Özger.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
9. Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable
This cinematic journey into the waters off East Africa chronicles the story behind artist Damien Hirst's massive exhibition of oceanic treasures.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
10. Grandpa Called It Art
This MGM Passing Parade series short takes a look at changing definitions of art in the United States.
11. Gerhard Richter: 4 Decades
Curator Robert Storr takes us through the 2002 MoMA Gerhard Richter retrospective.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
12. I'm in Love with Pippa Bacca (Sono innamorato di Pippa Bacca)
Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, better known as Pippa Bacca, was a 34 years old Italian artist. She crossed 11 countries involved in wars, hitchhiking with another Milanese artist, Silvia Moro, both wearing a wedding dress. This was a performance for peace, trust and hoping to prove that if you rely on others, you’ll receive good things only. After travelling many roads, the two artists decided to split for a while in Istanbul, planning to meet again in Byblos. Pippa left then, alone, and nobody heard from her again.
It has an average vote of 7.6 on TMDB.
13. Posledná večera (Posledná večera)
(Posledná večera)
14. The Price of Everything
Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
15. O Cristo de Vitória da Conquista (O Cristo de Vitória da Conquista)
(O Cristo de Vitória da Conquista)
16. Palin on Redpath
Michael Palin travels to France in search of the Mediterranean view on his wall, captured by his favourite artist, Scottish painter Anne Redpath. He travels from a London bank, via a chateau in Cap Ferrat and a monastery in Edinburgh.
17. Rembrandt, Painter of Man (Rembrandt, Schilder van de Mens)
In Rembrandt, Haanstra shows that it is possible to make a fascinating film only with images from paintings. He had to travel though all over Europe to numerous museums and private owners in order to film the works of art. In the work of the great painter, Haanstra recognizes his particular interest in man as an individual human being, cutting straight through all the religious motives. And Haanstra also wants to see Rembrandt as an individual.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
18. Gauguin: A Dangerous Life
Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who worked with the Impressionists and had a tempestuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. But he was also a competitive and rapacious man who left his wife to bring up five children and used his colonial privilege to travel to Polynesia, where in his 40s he took ‘wives’ between 13 and 15 years old, creating images of them and their world that promoted a fantasy paradise of an unspoilt Eden in the Pacific. Later, he challenged the colonial authorities and the Catholic Church in defence of the indigenous people, dying in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, sick, impoverished and alone.
19. The Painter and the Thief (Kunstneren og tyven)
When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
20. Beuys (Beuys)
The German artist Joseph Beuys is reflecting on his theory of art, being filmed as a kinetic sculpture. In 1981, the film has won the German film critic's award for “Best short film in Germany”.
It has an average vote of 5.7 on TMDB.