Masks

Inventata da un dio distratto

December 2001 •Italian

This film is dedicated to Maria Lai, an artist born in 1919 in Ulassai, Sardinia. Surrounded and inspired by the ogliastra countryside, the cyclopic guardian of plots and landslides, Maria Lai uses inert materials like stone, concrete, asphalt, metal and wood to work old and new legends into librettos of individual works, installations and interventions, thus becoming part of the landscape that calls to her. In making this film the authors have confided in the artist’s role as a spokeperson, and it is as if one is listening to the voice of a wild olive tree - both millenary and contemporary - a voice that knows what to say (and can say whatever it wants) from beyond the boundaries of reality, history, nature and art. As that tree, the artist - confident of her roots - with a sound sense of rhythm and scansion, multiplies big and small stories, just as she did with the bread and fish in Santa Barbara di Ulassai along the way to the country church.

Do Útero Ao Túmulo

December 2022 •Portuguese

The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl

August 2016 •English

Fighter pilot, inventor, spy - the life of Roald Dahl is often stranger than fiction. Through a vast collection of his letters, writings and archive, the story is told largely in his own words with contributions from his last wife Liccy, daughter Lucy and biographer Donald Sturrock.

Amongst universally grey cats

February 2019 •Spanish

Documentary film on the critically acclaimed novel El traductor by Salvador Benesdra, a journalist in midst of crisis in the mid 90s. Unable to publish his work, he kills himself.

Wechselspiel – Wenn Peter Stamm schreibt

January 2023 •German

Two documentary filmmakers become the plaything of writer Peter Stamm and subject of the novel whose creation they actually wanted to document.

Jack Kirby: Story Teller

June 2007 •English

A documentary on the life of Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers, The Hulk, The X-Men and the New Gods, among other classic comic book superheroes.

Montreal New Wave

February 2016 •French

MONTREAL NEW WAVE is a feature documentary that explores the New Wave cultural current in Quebec in the 70’s and 80’s. The film documents and questions that unknown part of our recent cultural history. Through archives and interviews with key figures of the time, MONTREAL NEW WAVE wants to shed light on a defining current that still inspires the Quebec cultural scene today.

Portrait of Imogen

January 1988 •English

Photographer Imogen Cunningham presents her own work in this Academy Award-nominated documentary.

Biafra

May 2015 •English

An unnamed graffiti artist produces a new piece in the biting cold of Minneapolis. Despite the illegality of his medium and the harshness of his environment, the film captures why the artist chooses to create on his own terms.

Andrew Weyth, The Helga Pictures

September 1987 •English

Charlton Heston tells the fascinating story of the intertwining of Andrew Wyeth's biography and art. He discusses themes of regeneration and fertility. An overview of Wyeth's place in contemporary art.

Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

February 2008 •German

The Living Stone

February 1958 •English

The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak

January 1964 •English

This documentary shows how an Inuit artist's drawings are transferred to stone, printed and sold. Kenojuak Ashevak became the first woman involved with the printmaking co-operative in Cape Dorset. This film was nominated for the 1963 Documentary Short Subject Oscar.

Alice Pasquini - Figlia del mondo

December 2019 •Italian

The documentary, made by the students of RUFA documentary course, followed Alice Pasquini for many months, resuming her pictorial interventions, interviewing friends and family, collecting archival material and participating in meetings for the realization of the book. The flow of images is a sort of specific itinerary that Alice Pasquini takes when she decides to give form and substance to what her mind imagines.

Stop Making Sense

November 1984 •English

A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.

The Great Contemporary Art Bubble

October 2009 •English

On September 15th 2008, the day of the the collapse of Lehmans, the worst financial news since 1929, Damien Hirst sold over £60 million of his art, in an auction at Sotheby’s that would total £111 million over two days. It was the peak of the contemporary art bubble, the greatest rise in the financial value of art in the history of the world. One art critic and film-maker was banned by Sotheby’s and Hirst from attending this historic auction: Ben Lewis.

The Michelangelo Code: Lost Secrets of the Sistine Chapel

January 2008 •English

Art critic Waldemar Januszczak is on the quest to explain exactly what the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is actually trying to tell us.

MMXIII

February 2013 •English

An experimental self-portrait, MMXIII explores phenomenological subtlety, intersections of construct and verité, and the ways in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce.

Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of a Genius

January 1981 •English

An assessment of the 20th century's best known artist and his vast achievements through the insights and speculations of over a dozen participants. Filmed on the 100th anniversary of Picasso's birth at MoMA, Musée Picasso, Walker Art Center, Museu Picasso Barcelona. Featuring Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rosenblum, Clement Greenberg, Roland Penrose and others.

Waiting for Hockney

January 2008 •English

A young working class Baltimore man spends 10 years on a single portrait, believing it is his means to fame and fortune. But he also believes that only one man can lead him there---the famous artist David Hockney. What happens when you finally meet the god of your own making?