Arts & 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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  • Music (collection)

    82 items

  • Television (collection)

    24 items

    The history and practice of making television, watching it, thinking about it, and trying to change it.

  • Starring Picasso

    9 items

    Whether animated or experimental, these four films and one series with Pablo Picasso showcase his talent and personality often in surprising, unexpected ways.

  • Tina Modotti (two films)

    2 items

    Two documentaries detail the life of legendary Italian photographer, Tina Modotti, while she was living and working in Mexico.

  • 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 ...

  • Photography (collection)

    27 items

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

  • The Last Angel of History (John Akomfrah)

    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...

  • Mona Lisa is Missing

    Directed by Joe Medeiros • Documentary • 2013 • 86 minutes

    How did an unassuming housepainter from Italy pull off the greatest little known art heist in modern time? Was his motivation more than money?

    Writer-director Joe Medeiros traces the path of Vincenzo Peruggia, charged with the 1911 thef...

  • Sol LeWitt

    Directed by Chris Teerink • Documentary • 2012 • 72 minutes

    'Conceptual artists leap to conclusions logic cannot reach,' Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) said in a rare audio-interview from 1974. Notoriously camera-shy, Lewitt refused awards and rarely granted interviews, yet in Chris Teerink's sensitive ...

  • Contact (series)

    9 items

    What is the story behind the most famous iconic photos from around the world? A unique and fascinating journey into the contact sheets of world renowned photographers from Magnum, the legendary agency founded in 1947.

    Contact sheets are the first overview for the photographer of what he has capt...

  • 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...

  • Dance (collection)

    33 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...

  • Alain Resnais: Five Short Films

    5 items

    OVID is proud to present five newly restored early short film masterpieces from legendary filmmaker Alain Resnais (1922-2014). Resnais would go on to make his mark in feature films, including the Oscar-nominated Hiroshima Mon Amour, but these early-career shorts demonstrate an already keenly deve...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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 ...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry

    Directed by Adam Bhala Lough, Ethan Higbee • Documentary • With Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Paul McCartney, The Clash, Bunny Wailer, Marcus Garvey, Carl Bradshaw, Eve, Benicio Del Toro • 2008 • 95 minutes

    THE UPSETTER tells the wild, weed-fueled story of Lee “Scratch” Perry — a ...