25 Sep 1991
Black Pénélope
A discovery of the pictorial art that Ndebele women traditionally practice in South Africa: painting the walls of their houses.
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.
25 Sep 1991
A discovery of the pictorial art that Ndebele women traditionally practice in South Africa: painting the walls of their houses.

01 Jan 1983

One public housing flat in Moscow stood out above all others: the home of George Costakis, the foremost collector of early 20th century Russian avant-garde art. Its walls were crowded with banned and forgotten works by artists such as Malevich, Tatlin, Kandinsky, Chagall, Lissitzky, Rodchenko, and Kliun; public figures such as Edward Kennedy, Stravinsky, and Alfred Barr visited. Barrie Gavin met the collector in 1982 at his home in Athens. Costakis, a Greek born in Russia, passionately shares his story and those of the great Russian avant-garde artists. Their works are his legacy – without him, they would not have survived the political upheavals in Russia.

29 May 1964

"Meat Joy is an erotic rite — excessive, indulgent, a celebration of flesh as material: raw fish, chicken, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, ropes, brushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is towards the ecstatic — shifting and turning among tenderness, wildness, precision, abandon; qualities that could at any moment be sensual, comic, joyous, repellent. Physical equivalences are enacted as a psychic imagistic stream, in which the layered elements mesh and gain intensity by the energy complement of the audience. The original performances became notorious and introduced a vision of the 'sacred erotic.' This video was converted from original film footage of three 1964 performances of Meat Joy at its first staged performance at the Festival de la Libre Expression, Paris, Dennison Hall, London, and Judson Church, New York City."

30 Sep 2017

Painter, poet and playwright, teacher and freethinker, lover and traveler, Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a rare individual who remained lucid and passionate throughout his long life.

15 Jun 2011

An intimate portrait of Eric Carle, creator of more than 70 books for children including the best-selling "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". At 82, Eric is still at work in his studio making books and creating art. As he methodically layers a tissue paper collage of the caterpillar, he describes the feeling he achieves working in his studio, the sense of being at peace, all alone, when everything grows quiet and it is just himself and his work. The film taps into that deep creative need in each of us, a spirit that started in Eric as a very young child and is unceasing today.

19 Jan 2024

A documentary about the Estonian artist Kaarel Kurismaa shows the viewer an insight into the world of artists. Kaarel changed his creative direction several times; he explored different artistic styles. Kaarel Kurismaa laid the foundations for Estonian kinetic and sound art. He is a highly versatile artist whose creative energy is divided between painting, sound, installation, monumental art, and film. On the crest of the avant-garde wave of the 1970s, he created several important sound and kinetic objects in Estonian art history.

02 May 2017

Buenos Aires is a complex, chaotic city. It has European style and a Latin American heart. It has oscillated between dictatorship and democracy for over a century, and its citizens have faced brutal oppression and economic disaster. Throughout all this, successive generations of activists and artists have taken to the streets of this city to express themselves through art. This has given the walls a powerful and symbolic role: they have become the city’s voice. This tradition of expression in public space, of art and activism interweaving, has made the streets of Buenos Aires into a riot of colour and communication, giving the world a lesson in how to make resistance beautiful.

10 Feb 2024

Embark on the epic ride of Jim Phillips, the genius behind skateboarding and rock culture's electrifying art. Drawing inspiration from his life in Santa Cruz, CA, Jim helped shape the golden era of skateboarding. Jim's story is a profound narrative of resilience, passion, and enduring artistic vision. This documentary explores Jim's dynamic life and career, showcasing his iconic work that has defined an era and secured his place in modern art history.

23 Nov 2019

IDFA and Canadian filmmaker Peter Wintonick had a close relationship for decades. He was a hard worker and often far from home, visiting festivals around the world. In 2013, he died after a short illness. His daughter Mira was left behind with a whole lot of questions, and a box full of videotapes that Wintonick shot for his Utopia project. She resolved to investigate what sort of film he envisaged, and to complete it for him.

13 Feb 2020

Today, analogue video is attractive primarily thanks to the distinctive aesthetic quality of its pixelated image and raster errors. But for Czech artists who first explored the possibilities offered by video art in the late 1980s, this medium represented a path towards freedom. Through a portrait of her grandfather Radek Pilař, one of the pioneers of Czech video art, the director explores her own legacy of imperative creative fascination. Her film’s main story, i.e., the process of reconstructing the 1989 exhibition Video Day, contrasts this enchantment with life in the final days of the totalitarian regime, which different sharply with the adventures of those who decided to emigrate – whom the filmmaker also visits in order to discover forgotten works, get to know their creators, and re-establish broken ties.

01 Jan 1971

This educational film illustrates various textures as students create different kinds of textured art by using ordinary objects and materials.

01 Oct 1950

Presents life in 18th century Spain as the painter Francisco de Goya showed it to us.

10 Jan 2024

Documentary about the Rembrandt Association. In the 19th century, a lot of Dutch art disappeared abroad, before the Rembrandt Association stood up in 1883 to put a stop to it. Today, 140 years later, the Association still helps determine what art lovers see in Dutch museums. In their crowning year, the Association faces a difficult choice: will they make the largest contribution in their history to the purchase of Rembrandt's De Vaandeldrager? The amount of 175 million needed for the painting is causing discussion. Is this money well spent?

23 Sep 2017

A visual artist and a musician create a series of works in which paintings and musical scores form cohesive pieces intended to be experienced together. The works interpret the excitement and monotony of life in the urban desert sprawl from the diverse perspectives of the native and the newcomer.

01 Jan 1964

The inner world of the great painter Max Ernst is the subject of this film. One of the principal founders of Surrealism, Max Ernst explores the nature of materials and the emotional significance of shapes to combine with his collages and netherworld canvases. The director and Ernst together use the film creatively as a medium to explain the artist's own development.

19 Apr 2009

A look at how form, color, smell, consistency, the sounds made during eating, manufacturing technique, history and stories influence food design.

01 Jan 1982

A video magazine put out by the Come Organization label. Noise, smut, medical procedures and an unwholesome fascination with infamous murderers. PETER SUTCLIFFE preview WHITEHOUSE LP TRACKS 3 total sex side A SUTCLIFFE JUGEND interview & music WHITEHOUSE studio action 2 HERMANN NITSCH a study AUSCWITZ / BIRKENAU 1941-82

29 Dec 1969

A documentary about surrealist artist Salvador Dali, narrated by Orson Welles.

01 Jan 2002

Travelling around the country, Art City: Simplicity takes viewers on a revealing trip into the studios and lives of a group of singular artists. On a desert mesa outside Santa Fe, Richard Tuttle invents his mysterious and marvellously humble forms, made of wire, cardboard, wood. In Taos, Agnes Martin rhythmically repeats extremely simplified images. Near the Santa Monica surf, John Baldessari, aims for successful juxtapositions of photographs and text. In his North Hollywood living room, Robert Williams revels in surreal cartoon imagery. At a cabin in Woodstock, Joan Snyder refines her sensuous art amid a lush forest. Mike Bidlo salutes Duchamp in a SoHo Gallery, while on Sunset Boulevard, Amy Adler reclaims personal history through self-portraits. Through this group of memorable iconoclasts, the creative "act" is there to see and study.

02 Feb 2002

Many artists use the pain, exhilaration and resolution of private desires to express themselves. Art City: A Ruling Passion focuses on intense personalities who’ve used their art to explore the emotional impact of psychological truths. Everything that Louise Bourgeois creates - whether in marble, fabric or bronze - comes from memory. Michael Ray Charles investigates the marketing of black memorabilia, using early American advertising imagery. Elizabeth Peyton reinvents portraiture, using her friends as subjects, as well as pop culture royalty. Ed Ruscha’s literary landscapes burst from the physical world "right outside the window." The comic spirit of Lari Pittman contrasts with his graphic declarations. In a landmark house, Richmond Burton remembers his dreams to build "psychic fields" of abstraction. The arrays of featureless faces by David Deutsch are stimulated by sub-conscious sensations.