Murals

Filmed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Tate Britain, London, the exhibition reveals Sargent’s power to express distinctive personalities, power dynamics and gender identities during this fascinating period of cultural reinvention. Alongside 50 paintings by Sargent sit stunning items of clothing and accessories worn by his subjects, drawing the audience into the artist’s studio. Sargent’s sitters were often wealthy, their clothes costly, but what happens when you turn yourself over to the hands of a great artist? The manufacture of public identity is as controversial and contested today as it was at the turn of the 20th century, but somehow Sargent’s work transcends the social noise and captures an alluring truth with each brush stroke.

What does modern art mean for ordinary visitors to an exhibition?

The decision to move to Holland doesn't sound like a wise idea. Why move to a country that could be flooded at any moment? For the last 25 years, the political climate has shifted. The public debate on migration has become harsher, more heated, and polarized. What would have been considered right-wing xenophobia back then, is now considered mainstream. Populists simplify complex realities into good and evil, victims and perpetrators: ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Their rhetoric often consists of dehumanizing words and metaphors. One of these is ‘water’. In reality, water is not an immediate threat to the average Dutch person; but it is a huge threat to the thousands trying to reach the Netherlands. People trying to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Trying to survive winter on the Aegean coast in primitive tents. To them, water really is deadly.

In subarctic Norway in a storm the sun projects shadows of clouds on a mountain forest.

Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on five continents, the documentary tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.

Seattle artist Dale Chihuly and his team test the limits of working in the glass medium as they pioneer “a new creative concept.” This documentary depicts Chihuly’s five-year creation of "Rotolo." The Italian word for coil, Rotolo is a series of large-scale sculptures twisting upward toward the sky.

A documentary about the life and works of the artist M. C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.

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.

In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Indigenous artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world.

A creative and personal retrospective of the renowned photographer Jindřich Štreit, accompanied by a selection of his photographs, footage from exhibitions, and encounters with those closest to him.

With loans from across the world, this major retrospective will bring together Vermeer’s most famous masterpieces including Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Geographer, The Milkmaid, The Little Street, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, and Woman Holding a Balance. This film invites audiences to a private view of the exhibition, accompanied by the director of the Rijksmuseum and the curator of the show.

The Emmy-winning story of how an American treasure hunter and a Mexican artist transformed a dying desert village into a home for world-class art.

A documentary film directed by seven famous directors, and narrated by several famous Hollywood actors. The film attempts to give the general filmgoing public a taste of art history and art appreciation.

Bacata is the first name of Bogotá: the lady of the Andes, the mountain that lights up. It's also the name of a tower, the tallest in Colombia, never completed. From the 28th floor, Laura observes the city, its secrets and its struggles. From the 28th floor of Colombia’s tallest building—a long-awaited, still-unfinished tower block in the centre of Bogota—Laura observes the city below, its secrets and its struggles, as a colourful cast of gardeners, activists, and human statues go about their daily lives in the shadow of the country’s history.

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.

A feature-length documentary celebrating the life and work of Trinity Bay artist and storyteller Clifford George.

Las Muralistas features women muralists whose works cover the walls of San Francisco’s Mission District. The muralism movement that emerged in the 1970s in the Mission District marked the beginning of a tradition of activism, expression, and community building through public art.

A short video documentary on Larry Janiak's time as an instructor at the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he taught undergraduate and graduate students for 12 years. Aaron Siskind hired Larry in 1968 to start an experimental live action and animated film area at the school. A narrator introduces Larry's career and achievements at the school and guides viewers through the animation filmmaking area. The film primarily features footage of a beginning animation course taught by Larry.

Resistance Sahara, a haunting yet playful exploration of the liminal space between experimental, documentary, and fictive filmmaking, presents an artistic response to the Sahrawi refugee crisis from the frozen war in Western Sahara. Bringing international artists from a mix of disciplines to the Sahara Desert, and with them will create something new, a response to what they encounter. The film mix testimony from the mouths of the people who live in each zone of crisis with music; image; and symbolism. The audience is invited to reconsider their view of the nature of human suffering, and to build a new bridge of empathy with the people in these remote and sometimes forgotten places..

Dick Perez, official Baseball Hall of Fame artist for over 20 years, painted the game's history and every inductee - a project he continues in his 80s. This childhood immigrant's portraits changed commemoration of America's iconic pastime.