People looking at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre – or are they just looking at themselves?
Social & External
The people behind it
A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign museums. In a quest to reclaim the past, Ephraim Bani, a wise and knowledgeable Torres Strait Islander, travels with his wife to the great museums of Europe where his heritage lies. The film, an SBS Independent production, shows that the thickest of masks cracks when a descendant of the original owners enters a museum.
Ragnar Alexsson, a.k.a. RAX, is among the most celebrated photographers in the world. His series Faces of the North are a living document of the dying cultures of the far northern reaches of the planet. His photo essays of farmers and fishermen in Icleand, and of the great hunters of Greenland give an amazing insight into everyday life of people who struggle a daily battle with the Arctic nature. A celebration of the photographer and his subjects, Last Days of the Arctic is an elegy for a disappearing landscape and the people who inhabit it.
Demolition of the old and building of the new Kunsthalle in Mannheim in the years 2013 to 2018.
Incarcerated participants in a mental health experiment watch videos of sunset-soaked beaches, wildflowers and forests on loop, prompting them to reflect on isolation and wilderness. Equal parts meditation and provocation, Blue Room identifies the damage done by withholding access to the outdoors and how we are all prisoners when the essential human need for communion with nature is denied.
A journalist receives 32 new photos of 9/11 from a camera found in the rubble of the World Trade Center — and uses clues in each frame to ID the photographer.
A film about fragility; about a man obsessed with photographing the accident who discovered that the fate of others was his way of connecting to life. When does the image of the accident become the object of desire? Following the footsteps of Metinides and the work of contemporary tabloid photographers, we discover Mexico City through a narrative of crime scenes and accidents; rubbernecking though Metinides’ Gaze.
Four unrelated moments following a young cat wandering the living room of her house.
Sámi artefacts from the Finnish National Museum are returning home to Sápmi, while the holy drums of the Sámi people are still imprisoned in the basements of museums across Europe. The returning objects symbolise the dignity, identity, history, connection to ancestors and a whole world view that was taken from the Sámi people. Director Suvi West takes the viewer behind the scenes of the museum world to reflect on the spirit of the objects, the inequality of cultures and the colonialist burden of museums.
Short documentary of Stefan Nadelman's road trip across America, focusing on other tourists and their compulsions and desires to photograph. The film won the Perrier Across America short film contest and earned a spot in the national ResFest touring digital film festival.
This film without words is composed of Pamela Bone's unique photograhic transparencies. Her talent has been said to 'push photography beyond its own limits, liberating it to the status of an entirely creative art form.' Inspired by nature, and being more responsive to feeling than to thought, Miss Bone has sought to express the mystery and beauty of the inner vision through photographic means alone: landscape has the quality of a dream; children on the sea-shore have a sense of their own enchantment, trees are forboding and strange when night moves in their arms. It took Miss Bone twenty years to find the right technique and so overcome the limitations that photography would impose.
Over a period of six years, director James Bluemel and producer Gordon Wilson followed epileptic alcoholic Nigel (37) from Oxford, England, who managed to slip through the net of the welfare system for 66 months. Self-mutilation, alcohol, and childlike delusions mean Nigel is a vulnerable man. In the words of his social worker, "Nigel has been abused financially, sexually, and emotionally for years." She's referring to the days when, while out "in the wild," a man named Robbie took Nigel under his wings. He was like a father to Nigel, while at the same time absolutely unfit for the role of caregiver, especially because he couldn't keep his hands to himself.
Shot over five years. A unique document of the creative work of the most representative artist of her generation. She is a painter (she creates a 240 m mural in the film), and a photographer of icons, which reflect everything human that the spirit contains. Life and thought of an essential artist, creator over three decades of an internationally recognized work and deserving of the National Photography Award. “The Look of Ouka Lele” is the story of how the creativity of a genius develops, his passion and his struggle in thought, painting and photography. Art and existence, united by the effort, talent and beauty of a creator in eternal struggle.
Despite being closed to the public, on Tuesdays at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the day is busier than ever.
Traces the life and mental illness of New York artist and photographer Ruth Litoff, and her sister's struggle to come to terms with her tragic suicide.
David Griecos documentary showcases the underappreciated photography of Domenico Notarangelo, and through it, tells the story of Matera, it's people and it's history.
Two real-life daredevils test the limits of their love and trust by illegally scaling one of the world's tallest buildings to perform an acrobatic stunt.
La Garoupe, a beach in Antibes, in 1937. For one summer, the painter and photographer Man Ray films his friends Pablo Picasso, Dora Maar, Paul Eluard and his wife Nusch, as well as Lee Miller. During these few weeks, love, friendship, poetry, photography and painting are still mixed in the carefree and the creativity specific to the artistic movements of the interwar period.
For decades, Freddy Krueger has slashed his way through the dreams of countless youngsters, scaring up over half a billion dollars at the box office across eight terrifying, spectacular films.
An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
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...!"
Taking inspiration from Peter M. Bracke's definitive book of the same name, this seven-hour documentary dives into the making of all twelve Friday the 13th films, with all-new interviews from the cast and the crew.
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
When the 'Big Four' - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax - shared a stage together on 22nd June 2010 in Sofia, Bulgaria, the show was beamed live into over 550 theatres worldwide via satellite in a special HD cinematic event. The Big Four Live from Sofia includes full shows from all four bands as well as behind the scenes and interview footage. The legendary concert from the Sonisphere Festival was one of only 7 shows across Europe when the four monsters of metal shared a stage for the first time.
A live concert in tribute to Freddie Mercury, former lead singer of Queen. Mercury died of AIDS and so some of the proceeds of this concert went to AIDS research. Features performers such as Metallica, Def Leppard, Elton John, Axl Rose, Extreme, George Michael, and many others. Performers alternate between doing their own hits, covering Queen songs, or jamming with the surviving members of Queen.
The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony took place at 9pm on 27 July 2012. Titled 'Isles of Wonder', the Ceremony welcomed the finest athletes from more than 200 nations for the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, marking an historic third time the capital has hosted the world’s biggest and most important sporting event. The Opening Ceremony reflected the key themes and priorities of the London 2012 Games, based on sport, inspiration, youth and urban transformation. It was a Ceremony 'for everyone' and celebrated contributions the UK has made to the world through innovation and revolution, as well as the creativity and exuberance of British people.
Oliver Stone charts the history of the United States from the Second World War to the present.
