This So-Called Disaster (2003), Breath Made Visible (2009), Stop Making Sense (1984), Trust Us, This Is All Made Up (2009), The Life of Reilly (2006), Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009), Venus Boyz (2002), Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Performance Art movies.
Storyline: In this documentary, filmmaker Michael Almereyda chronicles the San Francisco production of "The Late Henry Moss," a play written and directed by noted scribe Sam Shepard. The film explores Shepard's artistic inspirations as well as his working relationships with the play's cast, which includes stars such as Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Cheech Marin and Nick Nolte. Much of the film is devoted to a detailed examination of the work that goes into readying a play for opening night.
Plot Keywords: documentary, behind the scenes, theater, ensemble cast, director, creative process, performance art ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: American dance pioneer Anna Halprin helped redefine modern art through her belief in her medium's power to heal and teach.
Plot Keywords: documentary, dance, art, performance art, creativity, life, health ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: David Byrne walks onto the stage and does a solo "Psycho Killer." Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz join him for two more songs. The crew is busy, still setting up. Then, three more musicians and two back-up singers join the band. Everybody sings, plays, harmonizes, dances, and runs. They change instruments and clothes. Bryne appears in the Big Suit. The backdrop is often black, but sometimes it displays words, images, or children's drawings. The band cooks for 18 songs, the lyrics are clear, the house rocks. In this concert film, the Talking Heads hardly talk, don't stop, and always make sense.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: concert film, documentary, music, live performance, 1980s, american film, art film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Given the flawless results, it's hard to believe that comedians David Pasquesi and T.J. Jagodowski make up their entire act on the spot. This documentary records one of the long-running improv duo's hilarious performances at New York City's Barrow Street Theatre. The film also goes behind the scenes as the pair strategizes for that night's act, discusses the nuances of their creative partnership and reflects on their training at Chicago's The Second City improv troupe.
Plot Keywords: comedy, improvisation, documentary, stand-up comedy, live performance, humor, actors ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: If, in 1940, you had a lobotomized aunt, an institutionalized father, a racist mother, and were the only gay kid on the block, what do you think the odds would be that you'd end up a Tony winner, a staple of television, and a generational icon? Enter "The Life Of Reilly". The cliché goes that truth is stranger than fiction. In this case, it is also funnier and more heartbreaking. Charles Nelson Reilly, famous for his game show innuendos and "X Files" guest appearances, takes us through his bizarre, star-studded, tragic, hilarious, and ultimately amazing life with a potent blend of tenderness and quick one-liners. "The Life Of Reilly" is an adaptation of Mr. Reilly's acclaimed one-man show and was photographed for the screen during Mr. Reilly's final two performances of his play in North Hollywood, California.—jlm
Plot Keywords: documentary, drama, adaptation, stage play, comedy, tragedy, autobiographical ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Behind-the-scenes footage captures pop superstar Michael Jackson as he creates and rehearses for a series of sold-out shows that were scheduled to begin during the summer of 2009.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, concert, pop music, dance, concert film, legacy, stage performance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This intimate look into the real world of drag kings -- women exploring their masculinity -- crosses continents, traveling through drag king nightclubs from New York to London. Through interviews and on-stage performances, every subject reveals a different reason for choosing the gender they have. The film is less a critique than an exploration of a world that is increasingly becoming mainstream, as the featured protagonists question exactly how gender works, and should work, in modern society.
Plot Keywords: documentary, lgbtq+, performance art, underground culture, new york, artists, social margins ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This feature-length documentary film follows the artist as she prepares for what may be the most important moment of her life: a major retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. To be given a retrospective at one of the world's premiere museums is, for any living artist, the most exhilarating sort of milestone. For Marina, it is far more - it is the chance to finally silence the question she has been hearing over and over again for four decades: 'But why is this art?'—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, performance art, artist, retrospective, emotion, time ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Comedian Lenny Bruce struck a subversive chord in an era of change in America. After getting his start as a conventional stand-up comic, Bruce's increasingly iconoclastic act transformed him into a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture. This is his story.
Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, comedy, stand-up comedy, social commentary, counterculture, 1960s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Shortlisted for the 1999 Academy Award, this non-fiction musical follows John Wallowitch, a star of New York cabaret and partner Bertram Ross, Martha Graham's lead dancer for 20 years. Together they formed the unforgettable cabaret duo "Wallowitch and Ross." A hidden gem of queer cinema recently preserved in the Academy Archives, you'll want to return to this magical little world time and time again.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, concert film, art film, independent production, composer, musician biography, classical music ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: At the Harry DeJour Playhouse in New York in the mid-2000s, John Waters emerges from a confessional onto a stage littered with trash. He tells stories. After a few about his childhood and early influences, he roughly follows the chronology of his career as a film director, relating anecdotes about the making of each film and letting those stories lead him to riffs on other topics. Gay references and wry observations about people's foibles and limits are constants. Waters' looks, too, are the butt of his jokes.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, stand-up comedy, documentary, humor, satire, independent film, director ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Dubbed 'the black Beatles' by the British tabloids, the 'other' four lads from Liverpool recount their incredible story from the tough streets of Toxteth to the bright lights of New York - a journey of international stardom as Britain's pioneering million-selling soul and funk band. Against a backdrop of prejudice and political turmoil in the 1970s, The Real Thing were the first all-black British band to hit #1 in the UK pop charts, with the universally-loved 'You To Me Are Everything'. Other hits like 'Can't Get By Without You', 'You'll Never Know What You're Missing' and 'Can You Feel the Force' set dance-floors alight, but their proudest moment was composing the rousing 'Children of the Ghetto' - the first ever protest song to address the plight of black immigrants in Britain. The group's massive success has been tempered with racism, drug addiction and suicide but, for the very first time, original band members Eddy Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith reveal the brutally honest truth behind their trailblazing 50-year career. After five decades together, they remain the godfathers of black British music.—Baker Street
Plot Keywords: music documentary, music legends, music industry, british culture, musical influence, creative process, musical innovation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: One of comedian Richard Pryor's live performances (at the Sunset Strip, obviously) caught on film. Pryor talks about most of his standard subjects, including rascism and the differences between blacks and whites, along with talking about some of his recent film roles.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
Plot Keywords: comedy, live performance, classic, humor, satire, social commentary, adult content ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Concert footage and offstage documentary of singer Elvis Presley.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, elvis presley, concert film, live performance, american film, classic rock, music history ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Interview-style biography of controversial and pioneering stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. The film traces Bruce from his beginnings as a Catskills comic to his later underground popularity based on his anti-establishment politics and his scatological humor.
Plot Keywords: biography, drama, comedy, black comedy, usa, 1970s, stand-up comedy ...
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