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- A fast moving odyssey into the subterranean world of the rarely explored province of Filipino genre filmmaking.
- A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.
- Documentary profile of singer-actress Eartha Kitt.
- A look at the life, work, and impact of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), pop icon and artist, from his childhood in Pittsburgh to his death after a botched surgery. Warhol coined the word "superstar," became one, and changed the way the culture looks at and understands celebrity. After studying at Carnegie Tech, he goes to New York to be a commercial artist. By 1960, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rosenquist are inventing pop art. Warhol starts "The Factory," his workshop where he paints and makes movies. His is a cafe society of late nights and parties. His family, friends, an agent, a curator, gallery owners, actors, the co-founder of "Interview," and others tell stories and assess his art.
- As Isamu Noguchi walks us through his grand sculptures and gardens, the artist offers a unique insight into the way we, as individuals and as a collective society exist in time. Guided by his fascination with one's own reaction to time, Noguchi works to create pieces that emulate the non-linear narrative of life. Convinced that trapping oneself in a single time can be isolating in both existence and art, Noguchi stated, "If you are caught in time, immediate present time, then your choice is very limited, you can only do certain things correctly belonging to that time. But if you want to escape from that time constraint, than the whole world- I mean not just the most industrialized world - but the whole world is someplace where you belong." (Isamu Noguchi) Noguchi relates this interpretation of time to both his art and his experiences with the nature that tied into his work. While explaining how Michelangelo was told to collect his marble from Monte Altissimo di Nago, Noguchi dwells on the importance of recognizing the relationship between nature, art and technology. Much like his resistance to conform in the constructs of time, Noguchi is also persistent in his artistic freedom, rejecting the notion of a set genre or movement. He relies on intuition and passion to dictate his presence, and therefore his work's presence, in time and space. Reluctant to lock himself or his work into any preconceived notion, Noguchi stated the following, "I consider conceptual things as a base--that's where you start from. But the discovery is in the accidents and also the things that happen which make you change your mind. I'm never absolutely fixed about anything." (Isamu Noguchi) The fluidity of Noguchi's work led to a collection of stunning and diverse pieces that are, as he intended, timeless.
- Architect Peter Zumthor lives and works in the remote village of Haldenstein in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden where he can keep the politics of architecture at a comfortable distance as he enjoys status and praise for his unique modernist buildings. In "The Practice of Architecture", critic Kenneth Frampton visits Zumthor at his studio where the two are surrounded by models, designs and plans for current and future projects throughout Europe and the United States. Frampton questions the renowned architecture on the motives and methods behind some of his most famous works, including his Zinc-Mine-Museum in Norway and the highly acclaimed Therme Vals, a stunning hotel and spa built over the thermal springs in Graubünden. While walking us through his career, Zumthor discusses his penchant for minimalism, the importance of landscape, light and material, and the architectural theory behind his stunningly precise style.
- In 1968, we had the opportunity to spend time with Thelonious Monk and his musicians, following him in New York, Atlanta, and in various European cities. In New York his quartet plays at the Village Vanguard and at recording sessions for Columbia Records; in Atlanta they appear at a Jazz Festival organized by George Wein. The members of the quartet were Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales, and Ben Riley. The group was joined on the European tour by Ray Copeland, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, and Johnny Griffin, traveling as part of George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival road company.
- Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan's equivalent of modern dance, in actuality it has little to do with the rational principles of modernism. Butoh is a theater of improvisation which places the personal experiences of the dancer on center-stage. The dancer is used as a medium to his or her inner life, but not for the portrayal of day to day existence. A Dionysian dance of nudity, eroticism, and sexuality, Butoh's scale of expression ranges from meditative tenderness to excessive grotesqueness. By reestablishing the ancient Japanese connection of dance, music, and masks, and by recalling the Buddhist death dances of rural Japan, Butoh incorporates much traditional theater. At the same time, it is a movement of resistance against the abandonment of traditional culture to a highly organized consumer-oriented society. An alliance of tradition and rebellion, Butoh is one of the most fascinating underground dance movements. "Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis" is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies.
- By the end of the 1980's a new architectural sensibility challenged the prevailing post-Modern attitude and brought forth new and daring designs. Driven by the philosophy and theory of Jacques Derrida, the architects of Deconstructivism are rooted in a movement that urges us to examine the space we move through. Deconstructivist Architects documents explosive and seemingly chaotic structures from Vienna to L.A., and interviews those who pursue its aesthetic issues. Filmed on location with the architects and at the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, which was curated by Philip Johnson.
- Meticulously setting up each cinematic shot, Gregory Crewdson has mastered a style of eerie realism intended the make the regular feel foreign. Similar to David Lynch's specific use of the uncanny in films such as "Blue Velvet", Crewdson's work paints a dark, deep portrait of American suburbia. Much like a film director, Crewdson achieves his startling images by working with a professional crew including a director of photography, a camera operator, a production designer, actors and a casting director. His astonishingly elaborate sets create a unique realm of mise-en-scène, inspired largely by the works of American artists and film directors. Gregory Crewdson: The Aesthetics of Repression observes and questions the photographer during his work on ten new images.
- Katja Mann, wife of German novelist Thomas Mann, recalls their fifty years of marriage and their history both as a couple and independent intellectuals. Born in Germany, the Manns were exiled to the United States during WWII, and returned to Europe after the war, settling in Kilchberg near Zurich. Katja (née Pringsheim) was a witness to all her husband's writing and guarded him from interruptions throughout the years. Thomas Mann's well known literary accomplishments include "Buddenbrooks", "The Magic Mountain", "Death in Venice", "Joseph and His Brothers", and "Doctor Faustus". In this conversation with Elisabeth Plessen, Katja and her son Golo describes their life in vivid detail and reveal the background to many of Mann's important writings. Filmed in Katja's home in Kilchberg in 1969.
- Japanese architect, Tadao Ando, roots himself in cultural visions of space, landscape, and juxtaposition. Inspired deeply by his home and heritage, Ando proposes an international architecture that he believes can only be conceived by someone Japanese. Believing in the importance of carpentry and craftsmanship, Ando pays tribute to his culture and the way in which architecture is approached through the body. Showcasing his individuality through urban complexes, residences and chapels, Ando presents the work of his formative years, before embarking on projects in Europe and the United States.
- In 1943 Herbert and Lotte Strauss made the courageous decision to escape from Germany and almost certain extermination in a Nazi concentration camp. This is a personal account of their dramatic flight, building a new life in the United States, and coming to terms with the Holocaust. "We Were German Jews" grapples with the torment of living with the legacy of the Holocaust. The film chronicles Herbert and Lotte Strauss' return visit to Germany. They were not trying to assuage any sense of guilt over having survived; they wanted to confront the past by going back to where they had lived before the onslaught that claimed most of their relatives. This understated, very personal story adds significantly to the body of evidence that explores human behavior in the face of genocide and insists that we remember the past and learn from it.
- Pairing his collection of figurative paintings with an astute conversation surrounding mortality and humanity, "Francis Bacon and the Brutality of Fact" offers personal insight into the mind of an artist. In an interview led by friend and art critic, David Sylvester, Bacon opens up about his work and the, often times, grotesque and macabre tone of his paintings. His representations of the human figure in portraits and triptychs link him, in his view, to the distorted realism of Van Gogh and Picasso. With his unique take on life and death, Bacon explains to us the dichotomy of his art through an unexpectedly optimistic thesis which he dubbed the "brutality of fact". As Bacon's striking art conveys, with the acceptance of death comes a passionate vitality for life.
- Serving as a detailed portrait of the acclaimed Japanese architect, this film engages with Kisho Kurokawa, who employs Buddhist ideas in a symbiosis of traditional forms and western modernism to achieve an intercultural architecture. In a merging of philosophy, culture, space and narrative, Kurokawa has created a body of work that he defines as symbiotic, which he specifies as "the simultaneous expression of conflicting things in a symbiotic manner" (Kisho Kurokawa). Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis follows him to many of his major accomplishments in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Berlin, Paris, Chicago and New York.
- A light-hearted, toe-tapping portrait of the well-known 8 Oscar winning Hollywood costume designer filmed in her opulent house and garden. Edith Head presents some of her famous designs using glamorous models to impersonate Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy Lamour, Ginger Rogers, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly. They move to the music of the films for which she was the designer as Head recalls the times and places that served as inspiration for the famed looks.
- Pop culture and modern media flooded the art world throughout the 1960's, giving artists new means and methods for a cultural revolution. Leading the scene of experimental and avant garde art were innovators such as Robert Rauschenberg, George Segal, Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol. American Art in the 1960's follows said artists and many others as they venture through the movements of pop art, abstract expressionism, collage, sculpture and Expressionistic Cubism. Their audience followed along loyally as the artists' dove into new imagery that held a mirror up to society and examined the roots of culture. Narrator and writer, Barbara Rose makes the insightful observation: "As art was integrated into American life, it became more difficult to shock the public. Serious, profound, frivolous, absurd and ultimately tragic, the contradictions and paradoxes of the Sixties were reflected in American art of that revolutionary decade." (Barbara Rose) With no fear of experimenting with new mediums, the artists discuss the inspiration behind their work and the desire they feel to create.
- Scenes Seen with Allen Jones explores the motive of the artist's famed graphic works,, paintings and sculptures. The erotic overtones of Jones's work are both controversial and exciting, drawing the public's attention towards a new sector of the avant-garde. Jones is introduced in his London studio, where he is developing an idea for a new painting as he meticulously studies his model. During his days as a top member of the Pop Art movement in Britain, Jones evolved a singular genre of imagery: totemic forms of torso-less legs, sheathed in vinyl, which have become his artistic "signature."
- Jeff Wall is one of the most important and influential photographers working today. His work played a key role in establishing photography as a contemporary art form. Jeff Wall describes his recent work as "near documentary," a plausible account or a report on real or imagined encounters. Wall usually spends weeks painstakingly recreating these encounters and taking many pictures, from which he selects his final image in a critical process. His photographs are mainly displayed as backlit Cibachrome transparencies. In an interview with Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator at the Tate Modern, he said: Evaluation of quality is the core of the pleasure of the experience of art; the simultaneous pleasure of enjoying something intensely and of recognizing that it is a good work. I always judge my picture - daily, hourly, all the time. Even though it's disappointing to have to say "that one is not good", or "not as good as that one", it is still a pleasure to go through that process and experience a work afresh. Nothing has been as destructive to the condition of art as the idea that qualitative judgment is unimportant, and that art is important for cultural reasons. Art can only be important if it is good, because if it is good, it pleases us in ways we don't anticipate and don't understand, and that pleasure means something to us even if we can't specify what, exactly.
- The band of American artists known as the New York School toyed with tradition and rebelled against the Renaissance. In the early throes of Abstract Expressionism artists such as Jack Tworkov and Robert Motherwell were intent on working from the unconscious, eager to stray from the structured composition of the European work they had studied throughout school. Feeling as though free association yielded their best results, the painters, poets and performers of the New York School took a surrealist approach that was concerned less with aesthetic and more with expression. Those associated with the School were unified by their desire to create from within. While walking through the studios of Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, and Lee Krasner, writer and narrator Barbara Rose notes, "Many were immigrants to America, but slowly they turned their eyes from Europe, looking into themselves and into their own subjective conflicts and experiences. As a result, they created a monumental, dramatic art that remains a singular expression of the crucial modern quest for individuality and personal freedom." Never knowing exactly how their pieces would turn out, the artists of the New York School embraced their own complex humanity and worked from a place of bold, sporadic realness.
- "Frank Gehry: An Architecture of Joy" illustrates the unique intertwining of art and architecture throughout Gehry's spectacularly eclectic career. In this portrait, Gehry explores his work of the 1990's including The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, as well as his first European commission, the EMR Communication and Technology Center in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. Seeing himself as an artist first, Gehry discusses his early relationships in the art world and how sculpture, painting and small scale work has influenced his architectural style. Like Rauschenberg, Johns, and Warhol, he has introduced "bad taste" into his concepts, while keeping himself outside of the contemporary dialogue between modernism and post-modernism. He has translated the vocabulary of contemporary art into an architectural language of his own, disobeying the rules of his profession and questioning its historic conventions.
- Directed by writer and critic, Hans Helms, "African American Musicians and Composers" investigates the social, political and economical factors within the world of modern music where racial discrimination is still very much present. In an exploration of culture, tradition and democracy, musicians and singers such as Margaret Harris, George Turner and Martina Arroyo discuss their own experiences with racism in their industry and the ways in which they've persevered throughout their careers. Capturing both interviews and live performances, this film provides a glimpse into a variety of genres including opera, musical theatre, jazz and rock. African American Musicians and Composers serves as a compelling think piece on racial bias within the musical world while showcasing the vast array of talent among the featured performers.
- In 1968 German Television agreed to co-produce a film with us in which the distinguished German writer, Uwe Johnson, would introduce and question the various characters with whom he exchanges news and opinions during his wanderings on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Uwe, who lived in the area for several years, spent a majority of his free time getting to know his neighborhood very well, observing the goings on in the streets, cafeterias, and parks. We proposed to him that he participate in the documentary but being essentially introverted, Uwe was not interested in appearing on-camera, but was willing to make a list of places and situations that he felt should be included in the film. Christian Blackwood took charge of the project while Johnson wrote the narration which was added in once the film was edited. "Summer" in the City was broadcast in Germany at the time of its release.
- American composers have long struggled against the momentum of the Western European classical tradition and the prestige it has held in America's cultural life. Featuring Harry Partch, Lou Harrison and Terry Riley, Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy addresses the freedom desired by the musicians and their efforts to gain recognition and opportunities while existing outside of the mainstream. When asked about his creative process, Terry Riley offered the following thought, "There's always an endless frontier in music, because we're dealing here with a person's soul, you're dealing with something that's very basic, it's a spiritual element." (Terry Riley). Together the featured artists offer a deeper understanding of their alternative musical pursuits and how they have affected American culture.
- Driven by their mutual admiration of classical architecture, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown have worked together to create a space of unique post-Modernist construction. Filmed during the design and realization of the Sainsbury extension to the National Gallery in London, the husband and wife team discuss their past work and the shared principles that led to their precise, historically inspired approach to modern architecture.
- Japan's establishment as an economic superpower led to a Golden Age of Japanese architecture. Six innovators stand out particularly, fusing Japanese traditions with modern materials and technology.
- A poet among architects and an innovator among educators, John Hejduk converses with poet David Shapiro at The Cooper Union about the mystery and spirit of architecture. His own sketches and structures are shown.
- With the participation of famed architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move provides an intimate look into the work of the daring and controversial creator. Filmed in the U.S. and Germany, Eisenman takes the viewer through several of his buildings, including the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, while explaining his upcoming projects such as the Rebstockpark community in Frankfurt and the Max Reinhardt monument in Berlin. His predecessors and contemporaries offer praise and commentary on Eisenman's complex body of work including their own thoughts and theories surrounding his unique style.
- Built in 1972 by Kisho Kurokawa, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is a rare, long standing example of Metabolist architecture. Known as the first Japanese architectural movement, Metabolism manifested in 1960 through critic Noboru Kawazoe and five architects, Kurokawa being the youngest among them. Together they envisioned a new direction for future Japanese architecture and urbanism, designing plans with large, flexible and expandable structures, the style of which is beautifully demonstrated by the Nakagin Capsule Tower. The building is composed of two concrete core towers which 140 capsules are plugged into, all of which were prefabricated and designed to be removable and replaceable. This portrait, filmed in 2010, gathers context surrounding the tower from its residents as well as Kurokawa's colleagues, friends and family as they debate the current issues with the structure and argue the merits of both preservation and demolition. Tracing the history of postwar Japanese architecture and reviewing the characteristics of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, this documentary examines the meaning of Metabolism and Kurokawa's meticulous methods within the movement.
- Flooded with astute analysis and discussion surrounding his motifs, movements, and methods, "Picasso: The Legacy of a Genius" walks us through the artist's timeline and the complex stages of his life's work. Guided by the prolific artists who followed Picasso such as, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and George Segal, we journey through the artist's spectacularly diverse collection of work from his melancholy Blue Period to the introduction of Cubism. When confronting Picasso's natural tendency to explore and excel at vastly different painting styles, Anthony Caro stated, "I don't know anybody that could change their whole artistic persona so variously and so quickly as Picasso." (Anthony Caro). Always deeply inspired by the poverty and hardships he faced in the early years of both his childhood and career, Picasso did not shy away from the ugliness of his experiences. Following the rapid success of Demoiselles d'Avignon Picasso threw himself into Cubism, creating many of the images that would inspire artists involved with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the years to come. His abstract figures and and settings illustrate the complexities of humanity, presenting inner emotion through his subject's contorted and curious forms.
- Filmed at the Philadelphia Museum and Locks Gallery, The Imaginary Solutions of Thomas Chimes presents a conversation with the artist as he reminisces about his career, influences and artistic intuitions. Director of the museum, Anne d'Harnoncourt, joins Chimes to revisit the galleries of Thomas Eakins, Duchamp and Van Gogh, all of whom were deeply influential throughout his artistic journey. Just as many other American artists, Chimes spent time in Paris and discovered writers such as Antonin Artaud, James Joyce and most notably Alfred Jarry, whose writings on pataphysics dominated Chimes' work for two decades. Chimes's portraits of Jarry and his intellectual peers are the core of his idiosyncratic work as an artist. Michael Taylor, curator of Chimes' retrospective exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum, questions him on his progress from his beginnings to his present work.
- "Sam Fuller: Writings with a Camera" takes us behind the scenes of the much discussed and highly controversial film, "White Dog". Directed by Sam Fuller in 1981, the film is based on the novel by Romain Gary which is centered around the theme of racism in American and conditionalized hatred. The central figure in the film is a white German shepherd, adopted by a young actress played by Kristy McNichol, who has been trained by previous abusive owners to attack any black person it sees. The actress enlists the help of Keys, a devoted animal trainer, to re-educate the dog and attempt to correct the conditioned racism taught to him from a young age. Due to its theme and subject matter, the film was not widely circulated at the time of its completion but was finally released on DVD in December, 2008. Director, Christian Blackwood visits Sam Fuller on set of "White Dog", observing him at work with the animals and actors as he explains his approach to filmmaking and his unique desire to "write with the camera."
- Documentary portrait of the Philippine filmmaker Lino Brocka.
- Documentary examining the life and career of producer/director Roger Corman. Clips from his films and interviews with actors and crew members who have worked with him are featured.
- "The Once and Future Pariser Platz: A Square in Berlin Comes Back" documents a vital moment in the re-building of a city center, where the Berlin wall once stood. Within a few years Pariser Platz was rebuilt, accompanied by an extensive public debate about the quality of the new architecture and the merits of the city planning for the area. An imposing assembly of internationally acclaimed architects found new solutions for the ten buildings that once defined the site, among them the American embassy. Featured architects such as Günter Behnisch, Kevin Roche and Gerhard Kallman discuss the necessary aesthetic of the new U.S Embassy building and the desire to pay homage to its original neo-classical design while introducing modern elements. The re-emerging square symbolizes the reunification of the city as the years of the wall formally ended in Pariser Platz in 1989 with the opening of the Brandenburg Gate.
- As an architect, educator, and philosopher, Louis Kahn played a prominent role in the history of 20th century architecture. An examination of six of his most significant buildings: The Salk Institute; the Kimbell Art Museum; the Center for British Art; the library at Philips Exeter Academy; the Indian Institute of Management; and the Parliament Buildings of Bangladesh.
- With the participation of renowned architect, John Hejduk, members of the graduating class at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union in New York City explain their imaginative solutions to their fifth-year thesis assignment. In lucid and informed reasoning, they individually describe their sources, processes and progress in architectural language. Through a riveting combination of landscape, space, narrative and creation, this graduating class presents a vibrant and captivating image for the future of architecture. The students' passionate explanations of their projects impressively conveys the empowering nature of inspired professional education.
- In "Álvaro Siza Transforming Reality", Portugal's renowned architect discusses his work and tours 15 projects with architectural historian Kenneth Frampton, who has referred to Siza as "one of the most important architects working today". In 1974 the end of the dictatorship in Portugal opened up this previously isolated part of the world to current ideas about design, architecture and urban planning. 'Critical regionalism', or the melding of indigenous architectural forms with international ideas defined the architectural revolution in and around Oporto, Portugal. This movement became know as 'the Oporto School' of which Siza is the leading figure. Siza's approach to architecture is centered around the idea that the setting of a building is integral to its design, and that a structure's design should reinforce its surroundings by both enhancing and highlighting its potential. Frampton discusses with Siza his most significant architectural innovations at the actual sites in Portugal, including his large-scale housing project in Evora, the architecture school of the University in Porto, the Teachers' College in Setúbal and the recent Serralves Museum in Porto .
- In 1971, in association with West German Television, we produced a documentation on New York's musical avant-garde that was broadcast only in Germany at the time of its release. In 2010, nearly 40 years after the film's original production, it felt desirable to recycle the performances and interviews with the featured composers in order to create a revealing look back to those years for an English-speaking audience. Featuring notable contributors to the musical avant-garde such as John Cage, Philip Glass and Ben Patterson, this portrait explores experimental sound and the rise of electronic composition. "New Music: Sounds and Voices from the Avant-Garde, New York 1971" offers valuable insights into the nature and issues of advanced composition at the beginning of the 1970s.
- While visiting four architectural practices in 1982, we discuss the postmodernist movement through its meaning and motives. Beyond Utopia: Changing Attitudes in American Architecture features Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman, all of whom are protégés of Philip Johnson. Guided by their mentor, these innovators rejected the European modernism of Mies and Corbusier in search of alternative directions. The architects show and discuss their buildings of the time both in their personal offices and on location.
- The Cremaster Cycle: A Conversation with Matthew Barney follows the artist and New York Times art critic, Michael Kimmelman as they discuss his mythic display at the Guggenheim Museum. While guiding the camera through his sculptures and films, Barney tells Kimmelman about his process, vision and intentions when creating the "Cremaster Cycle". The sculptures, constructed from the artist's signature materials, including plastic, metal, and Vaseline, are three-dimensional incarnations of characters and settings seen in Barney's films. They exist independently but embody the same content, now expressed in space rather than time.
- Guided by seasoned New Yorkers, political figures, and cultural connoisseurs, "Empire City" examines Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs in order to paint a portrait of the ever-evolving metropolis. Appearing to be both adaptable and stubbornly stagnant, New York is a city of juxtapositions. As our narrator notes, "The city is too big, too diverse, and too complex for anyone to comprehend. New York is many cities interlaced with one another, each in constant independent motion." In "Empire City" we see proof of this dynamic through both footage and discussion of extreme wealth, economic success and increasingly expensive real estate versus the hardships faced by the city's minorities such as people of color, immigrants, and the lower class. Leaders and residents such as David Rockefeller, Edward Koch, Norman Mailer, Jane Jacobs, and Herman Badillo offer their insight into the best and worst of New York while tenderly noting the pride and loyalty it's inhabitants hold onto.
- 4 Artists: Robert Ryman, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg acts as a collective portrait of creators linked only by their stated intention of expressing ideas through art. Unconnected to traditional concepts of beauty, storytelling or pictorial representation, the artists discuss the context of their art and how their work and the public's perception of it have changed over time. This film offers the rare opportunity to see a large body of work in their studios.
- Ralph Erskine approaches his work with care, delicacy and a love that radiates through his designs. Both passionate and thoughtful, Erskine's architecture shows a dedicated knowledge of the areas where his works are constructed. While born in London, Erskine found himself working mainly out of Sweden, becoming attached to both the country itself and the influence the area had on his career. Erskine demonstrates his deep understanding of the country by factoring elements such as climate and economy into his designs. He explains to us his desire to create in both an aesthetically unique and functionally sound manner, noting the importance of becoming familiar with the space one is working with. Inspired by his own personal experiences with the nature and culture of Sweden, Erskine observed what the country needed both practically and visually. The results of this focused attention present themselves in the form of Erskine's many community housing projects, university buildings and work spaces. Erskine believed that architecture should cater to the needs of a specific area and was driven by this as he experimented with shape and structure to create beautiful and efficient spaces.
- Linked by their desire for the unknown and an increasingly explorative use of materials, the artists featured in 14 Americans: Directions of the 1970s strive to push boundaries and observe the space we occupy. Some of their activities enlist engineering and construction techniques, others compose texts or scripts that are central to their art. Some cast the viewer in the role of a spectator, while the others demand active participation. Through performances, sculptures, earthworks, furniture, and shaped canvases, artists such as Mary Miss and Scott Burton expand the meaning of art and strive to reshape our approach to creation.
- Filmed in the fall of 1972, The Artist's Studio: Donald Judd explores the concepts surrounding minimalism, sculpture, and geometric form. After studying art history under Rudolf Wittkower and Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University, Judd launched his career as a painter but was soon drawn to creating three dimensional structures. Made with common materials such as plywood, metal and Plexiglass, Judd's sculptures confront the ideas of space, object and tangible art. Judd discusses his projects, intentions and future plans in his SoHo studio and later, his Marfa home.
- Filmed in 2011 at the fourth conference on materials in architecture and engineering at Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, "Permanent Change" looks at the history and development of plastic within the architectural world. Capturing both a series of lectures and a panel with prominent names such as Steven Holl, Beatriz Colomina and Werner Sobek, this documentation observes detailed examples and lively debates regarding the popularization of plastic as a construction material. Addressing a number of contributing factors including design, engineering and form, the participants of the conference present a wide range of theories, analyses and predictions pertaining to plastics as an architectural material.
- Joan Jonas, a pioneer of video and performance art, started exploring new media in the mid-1960s and quickly became a highly influential and entirely unique visual artist. In 2012 we followed her work on her latest installation and performance, "Reanimation" which she created for the dOCUMENTA(13) art exhibition in Kassel, Germany. Inspired by the novel "Under the Glacier" by the Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness, Jonas created a video installation piece, mixing footage of a trip to Norway, text, drawings, props, and reanimated videos from her previous work. Pairing her imagery with the music of Jazz pianist, Jason Moran, who Jonas has collaborated with on past projects, the artist creates a unique space of sound and scenery. Throughout the film, the artist also offers insights into her inspirations and her early work including "Wind", "Organic Honey", "Volcano Saga" and "The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things".
- New York Composers: Searching for a New Music explores the fascinating world of composition and explorative musical creation. Featuring a group of New York musicians following in the footsteps of dynamic predecessors such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, this film serves as a portrait of an avant-garde musical movement. Rooted in the belief that philosophy, performance and spectacle are bound to individual interpretation, musicians like Julia Wolfe and Phil Kline produce a new form of sound that challenges our notion of modern music. Unlike the artists before them, who saw themselves as coming from the classical tradition, they live in an era of permissiveness, free and open to experiment in their work. Their sources are as diverse and unique as world music, Beethoven, and Led Zeppelin, combined with their direct connection to New York - a place which offers them inspiration, diversity, and dissonance.
- A documentation of Japanese avant-garde art and artists made during the remarkable economic boom, symbolized by the EXPO 70 in Osaka. To find the right artists, Isamu Noguchi suggested we seek the advice of Shuzo Takiguchi, an art historian and critic who was also a close friend of Marcel Duchamp. Takiguchi in turn recommended three younger critics who introduced us to exceptional young artists.