Art & Culture

From artists exploring and celebrating one another across disciplines — great Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura sees the cinematic in the innovative buildings of Renzo Piano, and Alain Resnais' short films on Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso's GUERNICA -- to films on erotic poetry and daily life, and the lives of celebrated opera singers in retirement, these are collections of films by and about people who see culture not as some convenient place of escape from uncomfortable realities, but at the very epicenter of urgent human concerns,

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  • Sapiens, the Birth of Art

    Directed by Pascal Goblot • Documentary • 2023 • 70 minutes

    For decades, it was believed that the beginnings of art had emerged in Europe, 20,000 years ago at Lascaux, then 36,000 years at Chauvet...Recent researches are shaking up our understanding of art.

    The art of prehistory is much richer ...

  • Zoo Station: The Story of Christiane F.

    Directed by Claire Laborey • Documentary • 2022 • 52 minutes

    When Zoo Station – The Story of Christiane F. was published in West Germany in 1979 it shocked the public but became an international best seller. The book tells the true story of Christiane Felscherinow, a West Berlin teenager who pro...

  • Modernism, Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Design Story

    Directed by Jason Cohn • Documentary • With Sebastian Roché (narrator) • 2023 • 79 minutes

    From the filmmaker of Eames: The Architect and the Painter comes a new documentary about a pioneer of modern design. Architect Eliot Noyes was one of the leading pioneers of modern design during the mid-ce...

  • The Silence of Mark Rothko

    Directed by Marjoleine Boonstra • Documentary • 2014 • 52 minutes

    'He wanted the viewer to step into the painting. What he aimed for was not a consumption of art, but a dialogue. He thought that art could transform the public.' -Annie Cohen-Solal, Mark Rothko biographer Painter Mark Rothko is be...

  • Olafur Eliasson: Space is Process

    Directed by Jacob Jørgensen & Henrik Lundø • Documentary • 2010 • 77 minutes

    From the huge golden sun of The Weather Project at the Tate Modern until last year's New York Waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson has managed to rattle audiences and art critics alike.

    Filmmakers Henrik Lundø and Jacob Jørgens...

  • Secret Museums

    Directed by Peter Woditsch • Documentary • 2008 • 77 minutes

    Throughout the ages, erotic art has been created by some of the world's best-known artists, but it is rarely on public display. Whether it is held in private collections, or kept under lock and key in museums and libraries worldwide, e...

  • Concrete Love: The Bohm Family

    Directed by Maurizius Staerkle Drux • Documentary • With Gottfried Bohm, Elisabeth Bohm, Stephan Bohm, Peter Bohm, Paul Bohm • 2016 • 88 minutes

    Pritzker Prize laureate Gottfried Böhm is widely regarded as Germany’s preeminent architect. The son of a master builder of churches, he’s also the pat...

  • Stations of the Elevated

    Directed by Manfred Kirchheimer • Documentary • 1981 • 46 minutes

    Stations of the Elevated (1981) is a 45-minute city symphony directed, produced and edited by Manfred Kirchheimer. Shot on lush 16mm color reversal stock, the film weaves together vivid images of graffiti- covered elevated subway ...

  • The Last Angel of History

    Directed by John Akomfrah • Documentary • 1996 • 45 minutes

    John Akomfrah, director of Seven Songs of Malcolm X, returns with an engaging and searing examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing c...

  • Preserving Worlds (series)

    2 seasons

    Preserving Worlds is a documentary travelogue through aging and beloved virtual worlds. Join us as we explore dated chat environments, appreciate player-created art, and meet people working against obsolescence to keep the communities they care about alive and accessible. Virtual worlds are delic...

  • Artists and Love (2 Seasons)

    2 seasons

    From Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, ARTISTS & LOVE delves into the tumultuous romantic and creative partnerships that shaped some of the towering figures of modern art. Over the course of two seasons, directors Stéphanie Colaux and Delphine Deloget chronicl...

  • Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

    Directed by Arne Birkenstock • Documentary • With Wolfgang Beltracchi, Henrik Hanstein, Sofia Komarova • 2015 • 93 minutes

    For nearly 40 years, Wolfgang Beltracchi fooled the international art world and was responsible for the biggest art forgery scandal of the postwar era. An expert in art hist...

  • Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind

    Directed by Nora Jacobson • Documentary • 2022 • 77 minutes

    After tragedy strikes, acclaimed poet Ruth Stone retreated to the margins of the literary world, working tirelessly to provide for her children, and transforming her intense grief into poetry, using simple, startling language.

    Using a ...

  • Visual Arts (collection)

    66 items

  • Far Off Sounds (series)

    21 items

    Far Off Sounds is a documentary series that explores how people use, play, and connect with music around the world. Japanese noise artists, Ethiopian jazz musicians, cult leaders, heavy metal cruises and more. The show tells discreet, intimate stories, in the service of the larger, infinitely com...

  • Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy

    Directed by Rauzer Alexander • Documentary • With Oscar Isaac, Laura Linney, Michael Stuhlbarg • 2019 • 76 minutes

    What do Jessica Chastain, Kevin Kline, Viola Davis and Anthony Mackie all have in common? They are but a few of the extraordinary actors who have studied under the renowned acting t...

  • Glenn Gould: On & Off the Record (two films)

    2 items

    These two classic documentaries show different sides of legendary Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould.

    ON THE RECORD follows Gould to New York City. There, we see the renowned concert pianist kidding the cab driver, bantering with sound engineers at Columbia Records, and then, alone with the piano, fa...

  • The Adventurers of Modern Art (series)

    6 items

    Adapted from Dan Franck’s literary trilogy Bohemian Paris, Libertad! and Midnight, the story plunges us into Parisian life at the beginning of the twentieth century, a hotbed of artistic creation with the blossoming of Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism. Through illustrations, animation and ...

  • Seraphine (Martin Provost)

    Directed by Martin Provost • Drama • With Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur • 2009 • 125 minutes

    Séraphine is the true story of Seraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper who in 1905 at age 41 — self-taught and with the instigation of her guar...

  • Theater (collection)

    20 items

  • Fischli & Weiss

    3 items

    The Swiss artists Peter Fischli (born 1952) and David Weiss (1946-2012), hailed by The New York Times as "the merry pranksters of contemporary art" and by ARTNews as "the best thing in Swiss art since Alberto Giacometti," worked as a creative duo starting in 1979. Their collaboration included scu...

  • Edward Hopper

    Directed by Ron Peck • Documentary • 1981 • 47 minutes

    A study of the 20th century American painter's life and work.

  • The Emoji Story

    Directed by Martha Shane, Ian Cheney • Documentary • 2021 • 79 minutes

    The rapid rise of emoji (Japanese for 'picture character') is a global phenomenon without precedent. Their widespread use and ability to convey complex messages have not only cemented emoji's place as an emerging digital lang...

  • Photography (collection)

    27 items

    A growing collection of moving images about still images, and the people who take them.