US PREMIERE Museums continue to be guardians of the politics of colonization; whether by whitewashing the plunder of artefacts from the global south or from being sponsored by neocolonial corporations that continue to exploit human lives. Continuing in the vein of his earlier film Enjoy Poverty, Renzo Martens tries imagining a utopia where the subaltern […]
NYC PREMIERE The Art of Making It explores the art-world ecosystem through the prism of young artists at pivotal moments in their careers, revealing the secret sauce that thrusts some into the stratosphere and leaves others struggling to survive. Why does it matter who we anoint to tell the stories of our time? Including the […]
US PREMIERE Sorious Samura is Sierra Leone’s best-known investigative journalist, making documentaries for CNN, Channel 4 and BBC and winning two Emmy awards. But he wrestles with creating stories for a white gaze. He embarks on a project with Sierra Leone playwright Charlie Haffner to create an epic work of national theatre meant to reclaim […]
NYC PREMIERE While locked up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 30-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As […]
NYC PREMIERE Spain Rodriguez, like his contemporaries Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman, was part of the vanguard of underground cartoonists who burst forth in the 1960s and 70s to push comics forward as an art form. Spain took inspiration from his varied experiences in the Road Vultures motorcycle gang and in left-wing politics to create […]
NYC PREMIERE DOC NYC alumna Deborah Shaffer, with co-director Rachel Reichman, offers an intimate look at the life and creative process of visual artist Audrey Flack. Feminist, rebel, mother, sculptor and teacher, Audrey’s often controversial 40-year career evolved from abstract expressionism in the 1950s to photorealism in the 1970s. One of the first women ever […]
NYC PREMIERE In 2013 artist Ai Weiwei and curator Cheryl Haines created an interactive art installation on San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island. Formerly imprisoned by the Chinese government for his art and political activism, Ai uses his experiences as inspiration. Through a unique combination of kites, Legos and postcards, Ai and Haines pay tribute to prisoners of […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Body of Truth profiles four unique female artists exploring complex personal and universal themes. Shirin Neshat works with the female body both as a sensual entity and a political space; Marina Abramović pushes through physical pain to attain freedom; Sigalit Landau uses her art to heal inner wounds; and Katharina Sieverding examines the artist’s […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Charming and engaging, with a youthful curiosity well into his 80s, Elliott Erwitt has always let his photos speak for themselves. His iconic black-and-white shots of presidents, popes, celebrities and everyday folks span over six decades and multiple countries. Narrated by his assistant, this film takes us inside his extensive photo archives and […]
NYC PREMIERE Pierre Cardin forever changed fashion in multiple ways. He freed women from figure-molded clothes and introduced new shapes, styles and colors. He was a pioneer in crossing over from haute couture to ready-to-wear. And he brought his designs to multiple products beyond clothes. From the premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Variety wrote, […]