Day after day, men and women occupy downtown Lisbon and use it as their stage. People call them "street performers" but nobody knows who they are or why they do what they do...
Social & External
The wild West Berlin of the 1980s became the creative melting pot of pop subcultures: music, art and chaos. Before the Iron Curtain fell, anything and everything seemed possible.
On October 1, 2013, the elusive street artist Banksy launched a month-long residency in New York, an art show he called Better Out Than In. As one new work of art was presented each day in a secret location, a group of fans, called “Banksy Hunters,” took to the streets and blew up social media.
From the streets of Bristol to the caverns of London and beyond, BanksyDoc finds the truths and explores the impact that the world’s most famous graffiti artist has had on the art world, on the expression of protest and satire, and on the perception of what you can do with a spray can and a stencil. Furthermore, this documentary explores the highly active art collector's world and how the celebrity factor shockingly influences value.
A look at the feud between graffiti artists King Robbo and Banksy.
Richard Hambleton was a founder of the street art movement before succumbing to drugs and homelessness. Rediscovered 20 years later, he gets a second chance. But will he take it?
In Vienna, street artists and urban explorers risk their lives to create art in hidden and forbidden places. Illegal artists and explorers challenge societal boundaries, risking their lives not for recognition but for the pure pursuit of art. In one of Europe’s most livable cities, culture and wealth come at a price. But what happens when you’re not willing to pay? This documentary explores the complexities faced by those who refuse to express themselves within the confines of the norm, seeking to claim spaces not designed for them—even if only for a moment.
From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion—unleashing joy, art, and radical truth in a fight for survival.
Dr Richard Clay goes in search of what it is that has made us scribble and scratch mementoes of our lives for more than 30,000 years. From the prehistoric cave paintings of Burgundy in France, through gladiatorial fan worship in Roman Lyons to the messages left on the walls of Germany's Reichstag in 1945 by triumphant Soviet troops, time and again we have wanted to leave a permanent record of our existence for our descendants. And it may be that this is where what today we call art comes from - the humble scratch, graffiti.
A short profile doc on street artist MissMe—a sort of Banksy-esque underground figure with a feminist bent. While the short portrait documentary field is certainly overcrowded, director Mohammad Gorjestani’s film is beautifully shot and quickly paced. It’s got a certain energy that can’t be denied (much like artwork driving the film). Plus, the central character is an inspiring symbol of artistic authenticity and self-liberation. A former advertising executive, MissMe ditched her high-profile corporate day job to become a counter-voice to the objectification of women in the mainstream advertising world. Girl power, indeed.
Downtown has become a frontier of creativity where new ideas flourish. From raw and tragic beginnings, it has grown from a groundswell of spontaneous gap filling into a force that could redefine the shape of the future city. Projects like Gap Filler’s Dance-O-mat and Pallet Pavilion, the profusion of street art and Peter Majendie’s 185 Empty Chairs Memorial have become iconic symbols of the grassroots urban movement and provide sharp contrast to central Government’s big business, corporate driven approach to the rebuild of the city. Soon, a new city will arise, but whose city will it be, and will the creative energy that brought life to the rubble be a part of its future? The Art of Recovery documents one of the most dynamic, creative and contentious times in the history of Christchurch. It tells an uplifting story of resilience and community spirit that informs a greater conversation about how we live together, and how our we build our cities.
An essay on street art in Sao Paulo during the early 90s.
This quick look at Lisbon begins with aerial footage of the port city as the off-screen narrator provides some history of a seafaring, colonizing nation, of destructive earthquakes, and of contemporary construction. Then it's on to famous buildings and monuments, a look at female fishmongers who ply neighborhoods with baskets of fish on their heads, a survey of two nearby resort areas, watching a town's annual running of the bulls, and a visit to a bullfight, where the bulls are not killed.
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows the surrealist artist around the streets of New York documenting staged public art events.
Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
The exit door of the Bataclan theatre, the site of Bansky's mural, The Sad Girl, is stolen mysteriously. After it abruptly appears on of a hillside cottage in Abruzzo, French and Italian investigators unite to get to the bottom of the theft.
In Europe, road junctions have become public art galleries. A road trip across France, Switzerland, the Canary Islands, Greece and Germany exploring the glorious world of roundabout art.
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.
Ache- B is a consecrated artist, gives his perspective on migration and art and how these two have influenced his life and have allowed him to leave a mark for every corner of Latin America he has visited. Through his paintings and his passion for her, he manages to rescue the different cultures he met in his travels in Latin America, acquiring a connection with the people and the place.
Armed with music and a message, influential hip-hop group Racionais MC's turned their street poetry into a powerful movement in Brazil and beyond.
Rock In Rio Festival 2001 - Iron Maiden headlines one of the biggest shows on Earth to a massive sell-out 250,000 crowd and a global TV audience of millions. The explosive two hour set, shot using 18 cameras and edited by Steve Harris, is Maiden at its best, performing their biggest show ever on the final date of their Brave New World Tour.
A journey inside the world of real life caped crusaders. From all over America, these self-proclaimed crime fighters, don masks, homemade costumes and elaborate utility belts in an attempt to bring justice to evildoers everywhere.
A depiction of the Wrangelkiez neighbourhood in Berlin. The people portrayed tell their life stories. One woman came to the neighbourhood a decade ago to work in Berlin’s still unfinished Brandenburger Airport, one man reminisces his childhood on a Tobacco farm in Kentucky, another speaks of an exceptional day in an otherwise monotonous workplace. These portraits are interwoven with the story of Elpi, a Greek woman who is waiting for the long overdue visit of an old important friend. The outcome of this mixture is a film which captures the lives and perspectives of some of Wrangelkiez’s most commanding citizens, while at the same time evoking the loss that change and time passing means for places and for people.
A documentary chronicling Queen and Lambert's incredible journey since they first shared the stage together on "American Idol" in 2009.
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.
Slipknot performs live at the London Arena, summer 2002, in support of their Iowa album.
As the world boiled in the rush of Easy Rider bikes, in the frenetic pace of Elvis Presley, in Beatniks poets, in the explosion of counterculture, a boy from Bahia gave birth to Rock in Brazil. A runaway flying saucer that abducted the hearts and minds of thousands of fans, Raul Seixas, a man who became a myth. Raul died young because he lived intensely. Rock n 'roll, free love, alternative society, drugs, black magic, military dictatorship, women and daughters. A man who wanted to live from his work and died for it. The beginning, the end and the middle are confused, because the story is not over. The film reveals through rare images of archive, meeting with relatives, conversations with artists, producers and friends, the trajectory of the legend of Rock.
Following a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.
The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"
Featuring a wealth of previously unseen archive, this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved: from Ziggy Stardust to the Soul Star of Young Americans, to the ‘Thin White Duke’. It explores his regeneration in Berlin with the critically acclaimed album Heroes, his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let’s Dance. With interviews with all his closest collaborators, David Bowie - Five Years presents a unique account of why Bowie has become an ‘icon of our times’.
A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.
Jonas Mekas weaves an elegiac diary film from his 1971–72 return to Lithuania, chronicling a visit to his birthplace of Semeniškiai after decades in exile. Blending personal memory with documentary observation, the film becomes both a portrait of homecoming and a meditation on displacement, family, and the passage of time.
Between scenes from his concert in São Paulo's oft-inaccessible Theatro Municipal, rapper and activist Emicida celebrates the rich legacy of Black Brazilian culture.
A musical study of Los Angeles in the late 90s, where homeless teens roam the streets and profess to live a punk lifestyle of music, drugs, and flouting authority.
This character-driven film considers the evolving sex trafficking landscape as seen by the main players: the exploited, the pimps, the johns that fuel the business, and the cops who fight to stop it.
A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
A presentation of a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter will transcend the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical 'life ground' attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a 'Resource-Based Economy'.
