When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe. Over the years, Lea Glob kept returning to film the charismatic Apolonia and a special bond developed between the two young women.
Martin Štrba’s inventive documentary tells the remarkable story of a group of Slovak photographers whose groundbreaking work challenged Communist orthodoxy in the 1980ss.
The documentary was created to mark the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death. Inspired by his famous quote, Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic the film focuses on Picasso's life and legacy, centered around the Picasso Museum in Paris. It explores his deep connection to the city, his personal complexities, and new aspects of his work recently uncovered by historians.
At age 25, Olivier Rousteing was named the creative director of the French luxury fashion house, Balmain. At the time, Rousteing was a relatively unknown designer, but in the decade since, he’s proven his business prowess and artistic instinct by leading Balmain to new heights. Wonderboy gives the viewer the rare opportunity to experience the inner sanctum of the fashion world, as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with this extraordinary individual while he works. Once the day’s hectic pace subsides, the camera becomes Rousteing’s confidante, and he opens up, revealing intimate details about what both worries and drives him.
Movie|United States|08/31/2023| HBO Max |Documentary|Artists
With his signature circular glasses and mustache, Michael Chow is an exuberant force at the crossroads between eccentricity and sophistication. The famed restaurateur defined “The Moment” with the openings of Mr. Chow, the bustling upscale Chinese eateries that attracted the glitterati of Swingin’ London, 70s Hollywood, and post Studio 54 New York.
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
Fifteen years after the smash, Tony-winning Broadway run of Spring Awakening, the original cast and creative team reunite for a spectacular, one-night only reunion concert to benefit The Actors Fund. Chronicling their whirlwind journey back to the stage, this documentary follows the players as they reconnect and rediscover the beauty and timelessness of the hit musical.
This documentary chronicles renaissance man Gordon Parks’ stellar career from staff photographer for LIFE magazine, through his artistic development photographing everyday Americans, through his evolution as a novelist and groundbreaking filmmaker.
For generations, the Public Theater has been the beating heart of New York City’s cultural scene. And now, as New York City staggers back after a deadly pandemic, the Public Theater is once again in the spotlight with a new all-black production of Merry Wives - bringing back Free Shakespeare in the Park after Covid shut it down for the first time in its 67-year history. This documentary chronicles the behind-the-scenes story of the Public Theater as it returns to the stage, and shows New Yorkers and the world that despite everything, art and artists will always survive and indeed thrive.
Ahmad Zakii Anwar may well be Malaysia's best-known artist. He became famous for his photo-realistic animal pictures, still life paintings and expressive portraits, which offer a timeless reinterpretation of modern Asian society. This documentary looks at the way Zakii's art continues to defy convention in an increasingly radical Islamic world. Ahmad Zakii Anwar's paintings of naked male bodies are both provocative and fascinating, especially in a country like Malaysia, where Islamic Sharia law prevails. It is a society that still regards nakedness and even being different as taboo. The 63-year-old Anwar, who is one of Malaysia's most sought-after artists in Western countries, sees himself as an urban realist looking for confrontation. It is the first time a documentary has looked at the painter and his work in detail and examined its meaning in both a radicalizing society and a liberal one.
‘Theatre is my life,’ Yildiz Kenter admits in her biography written by Dikmen Gürün. This is the story of a star, who has dedicated her whole life to her theatre company, students, the stage. Recounting the prizes received as well as the prices paid for pursuing your passion, Sweetie is a testimony to the transforming cultural landscape of the country as it tells Kenter Theatre’s story and thus how a private theatre has managed to survive. Including interviews by family members, students, fellow actors, as well as rare archival images and footage, Sweetie is an homage to the ‘North Star of Turkish theatre.’ The documentary was written by Zeynep Miraç, scored by Murat Evgin, and features Dikmen Gürün as advisor.
For the first time ever, Tasha Tudor has permitted a film crew unprecedented access to document her daily life. An intimate and charming portrait of one of America's best-loved artists.
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
A documentary film about the life of Star Trek's Mr. Spock as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mr. Spock for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son, Adam Nimoy.
An intimate look at Audrey Hepburn's life, with access to exclusive never-before-seen footage from her family's personal collection, providing an unprecedented and insightful view on Audrey, her life and her dreams, aspirations and her everlasting legacy.
With a 50-year career north and south of the border, Newry-born artist Seán Hillen wears many hats; collagist, photomontage artist, inventor, polymath, conspiracy theorist, documentary photographer and sculptor. He has exhibited widely in museums and art galleries. But despite all this, Seán Hillen is the most heavily censored artist to come out of Britain or Ireland. Tomorrow is Saturday is a revealing documentary exploring the historical and cultural legacy of Seán’s work as he deals with the practicalities of living with Asperger’s - two things that are inextricably linked. The viewer is invited into the private life of a very brilliant man living alone in a tiny cluttered house on a Dublin back street – its walls covered with thousands of receipts, letters, postcards and notes. Boxes filled with leaflets, magazines and prints are stacked floor to ceiling . With Asperger’s, collecting and hoarding is a compulsion - nothing gets thrown away.
This captivating exploration of Alvar Aalto, the defining figure in Scandic design and one of Europe's greatest modern architects, focuses on his remarkable and loving partnership with wife, Aino. Theirs was a profoundly humanist vision that put people at the centre of design, and ranged from work in furniture design through to huge architectural projects. They mixed with, and influenced, major figures of modernist art and design including Le Corbusier, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Come on a cinematic tour of their iconic buildings all over the world, from a library in Russia, a student dormitory at MIT, an art collector's private house near Paris, to a pavilion in Venice. Narrated by experts in the field and featuring never before seen archive footage, Aalto tells the love story of an extraordinary couple with a great passion for human scale architecture.
Robert De Niro, Sr., was a celebrated painter obscured by the pop-art movement. His life and career are chronicled in the artist's own words by his contemporaries and, movingly, by his son, the actor Robert De Niro.
The professional life of Roxanne Lowit, one of the greatest fashion photographers and a pioneer of backstage photography, covering her career from 1977 and the Studio 54 until now.
Pablo Picasso is one of the greatest artists of all time - and right up until his death in 1973 he was the most prolific of artists. Many films have dealt with these later years - the art, the affairs and the wide circle of friends. But where did this all begin? What made Picasso in the first place? Too long ignored, it is time to look at the early years of Picasso; the upbringing and the learning that led to his extraordinary achievements.
On the night of February 21, 2018, investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, both just 27 years old, were brutally murdered in their home. It was the first targeted killing of a journalist in Slovakia's history, and shocked citizens protested on a scale not seen since the fall of communism. Kuciak was well known for covering questionable financial connections between politicians and elite business tycoons, namely millionaire Marián Kocner. When police failed to meaningfully investigate the prime suspect, journalists mobilized the public. Leaked files, Kuciak's posthumous reports and civic outcry led to scandalous discoveries of decades-old corruption networks involving Kocner and the police chief, high-ranking bureaucrats and the prime minister himself.
In 2016, a young Australian filmmaker began documenting amateur inventor Peter Madsen. One year in, Madsen brutally murdered Kim Wall aboard his homemade submarine. An unprecedented revelation of a killer and the journey his young helpers take as they reckon with their own complicity and prepare to testify.
One out of ten in Denmark suffers from mental illness and it is the most common health condition of them all. Yet, due to the taboo and stigmatisation of mental illness, it is still under prioritized and as a result the welfare system is pushed to its limits. The care of the mentally ill instead falls upon relatives, most often parents and they become the lifeline and primary carer. When a family member gets sick it affects everyone in that family and especially those who love them. LOVE BOUND unconvers the unconditional love, which governs the relationship most parents have to their children and that must somehow be altered, when a child is suffering from mental illness.
Hunting for Hedonia explores how the burgeoning technology of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) will impact human identity and our sense of self. DBS is a revolutionary tool in neuroscience and as a treatment it is crossing over from movement control in Parkinson's to alleviating mental illness. Trials are underway in depression, OCD, PTSD and eating disorders.