A kaleidoscope of ground-breaking artists, great performances, and cultural icons
Music takes centre stage in Portraits, with profiles of pioneering artists like Luther Vandross and Iranian singer Googoosh, and a liberating take on the rise of disco. Time and again, we’re reminded that remarkable art is often entangled with complicated histories. This is particularly evident in So Surreal: Behind the Masks, which investigates the complex connections between the European surrealists and Indigenous ceremonial masks from Turtle Island. Elsewhere, we’re allowed to explore art’s relationship with the natural world and witness how the spontaneity of the city can inspire indelible photography.
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Disco's Revenge
This loving, vivacious doc chronicles disco’s trajectory, from its origins in the early 70s to its repudiation in the early 80s to its triumphant rebirth as house music. The directors capture not only the facts about the genre but the feel of it as well.
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Modernism, Inc.
An insightful look into the heart and soul of modernism in postwar America through the artistic legacy of Eliot Noyes, trailblazing industrial designer, architect, and lifelong innovator who spent four decades introducing modern design to American life.
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A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
In May 1949, the modernist Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham ascended the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. The experience was transformative becoming a fount of creative inspiration which she would return to for the rest of her artistic life.
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Viva Niki - The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle
From her exuberant outdoor Nana sculptures to her breathtaking masterwork, The Tarot Garden in Tuscany, the playfully vibrant oeuvre of feminist monumental sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle is the subject of Michiko Matsumoto’s delightful documentary.
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Draw Me Egypt: Doaa El-Adl, a Stroke of Freedom
Doaa el-Adl is one of the most prominent of the very few female cartoonists in the Arab world. Blending documentary, cartoons, and animation, this film brings her courageous art to life as she advocates for women’s rights and change in Egyptian society.
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John Singer Sargent: Fashion & Swagger
Artist John Singer Sargent possessed the ability to capture the essence and soul of a person, producing some of the most memorable portraits ever created. Director David Bickerstaff pays fitting tribute to this master of portraiture and light.
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So Surreal: Behind the Masks
In the early 20th century many traditional Indigenous masks ended up in Europe, in museums and art collections, and, as this entertaining doc reveals, in the hands of surrealist artists like Max Ernst, André Breton, and Joan Miró...
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Googoosh - Made of Fire
Still on stage in her 70s, Iranian pop icon Googoosh has lived through decades of political persecution, 20 years of house arrest, exile, and a comeback. A fascinating portrait of a troubled and turbulent Iran through the life of an extraordinary woman.
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Uncropped
New York photographer James Hamilton has done it all in a remarkable career spanning six decades with The Village Voice, Harper's Bazaar etc. D.W. Young’s energetic doc tells the story of the halcyon days of alternative print media through the 70s and 80s.
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Pol Pot Dancing
The story of a boy and future dictator, and the woman who saved Khmer classical dance after the brutal Cambodian genocide, Enrique Sánchez Lansch’s documentary is a stunning achievement that sheds new light on one of the darkest moments of history.
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A Stranger Quest
David Rumsey has dedicated himself to assembling a vast collection of historical maps. Looking back on his life and pondering his legacy, he reflects on how we trace our place in the world, on maps, memory, and mortality.
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Luther: Never Too Much
The ups and downs of singer-songwriter Luther Vandross are put on frank display in this moving biographical documentary. It’s a look at an artistic legacy that we’re only now able to fully reckon with, and a reintroduction to music we can’t get enough of.
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