The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993), Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey (2002), Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010), Wyeth (2018), Crazy Horse (1996), Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003), Crumb (1994), Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy With Time (2001) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Visual Arts movies.
Storyline: Ray Müller directs this extensive documentary on the life of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Created at the behest of Riefenstahl, the film honestly delves into her association with Hitler and the extent to which she knows of the Nazi Party's entire strategy. It also gives a fuller picture of Riefenstahl's life, discussing her ascent from dancer to documentary filmmaker, as well as her post-Nazi work, which includes nature filmmaking and photography.
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, history, nazi germany, filmmaking, propaganda, controversy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The creators of the internationally renowned stage show "Stomp" aim to bring its infectious energy to the world stage. Shooting on location on five different continents, the filmmakers interweave various musical styles with the inventive percussion and high-energy dance numbers of the off-Broadway smash to reveal the evolving nature of music around the world. Performers rhythmically pound their feet, clap their hands and bang any object in sight to reveal the pulse that connects all mankind.
Plot Keywords: music, dance, rhythm, performing arts, documentary, creativity, improvisation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A thoughtful portrait of a renowned artist, this documentary shines the spotlight on New York City painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Featuring extensive interviews conducted by Basquiat's friend, filmmaker Tamra Davis, the production reveals how he dealt with being a black artist in a predominantly white field. The film also explores Basquiat's rise in the art world, which led to a close relationship with Andy Warhol, and looks at how the young painter coped with acclaim, scrutiny and fame.
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, biography, painter, new york, 1980s, rise to fame ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: WYETH tells the story of one of America's most popular, but least understood, artists. While his exhibitions routinely broke attendance records, art world critics continually assaulted his work. Through unprecedented access to Wyeth family members, archival materials, and his work, WYETH presents the most complete portrait of the artist ever - bearing witness to a legacy just at the moment it is evolving.
Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, art, painter, realism, painting, cultural heritage ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: During the mid-19th century, in what is now South Dakota, Crazy Horse (Michael Greyeyes) of the Oglala Sioux rises to prominence in his tribe. He falls in love with the married Black Buffalo Woman (Irene Bedard), and uses his trance-like visions to help his uncle, Chief Red Cloud (Wes Studi), and his people fight for independence against the advancing American forces. Eventually, they defeat General Custer (Peter Horton) and his men, but they then must face the reality of Westward expansion.
Plot Keywords: documentary, dance, performing arts, paris, cabaret, art film, french cinema ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmed only a few years before his death, this documentary focuses on the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson, a frustrated painter who became a world-renowned photographer. As he reviews his portfolio of iconic images and notable figures, the notoriously press-shy Cartier-Bresson offers insights into his legendary career, which covered everything from Gandhi's funeral to the fall of China. Interviews with historians and colleagues explore the powerful impact of his globetrotting work.
Plot Keywords: documentary, photography, biography, art, france, director, filmmaking ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind. As stream-of-consciousness images incessantly flow forth from the tip of his pen, biting social satire is revealed, often along with a disturbing and haunting vision of Crumb's own betes noires and inadequacies. As his acid-trip induced images flicker across our own retinas, we gain a little insight into this complex and highly creative individual.—Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, art, american culture, counterculture, 20th century, controversy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, nature, time, landscape, creative process, photography ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera rolls. He begins with simple works that take shape after only a single brush stroke. He then progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene at will, until at last the work is complete.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, painting, creative process, french film, black and white, experimental film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.—Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, film history, hollywood, filmmaking, art, visual arts ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In modern dance since the 1970s, few choreographers have had more influence in the medium than the late Pina Bausch. This film explores the life and work of this artist of movement while we see her company perform her most notable creations where basic things like water, dirt and even gravity take on otherworldly qualities in their dancing.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Plot Keywords: dance, documentary, modern dance, art, germany, performing arts, choreography ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A documentary on legendary movie-poster artist Drew Struzan.
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, hollywood, film industry, artists, pop culture, creativity ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1994, a group of scientists discovered a cave in Southern France perfectly preserved for over 20,000 years and containing the earliest known human paintings. Knowing the cultural significance that the Chauvet Cave holds, the French government immediately cut-off all access to it, save a few archaeologists and paleontologists. But documentary filmmaker, Werner Herzog, has been given limited access, and now we get to go inside examining beautiful artwork created by our ancient ancestors around 32,000 years ago. He asks questions to various historians and scientists about what these humans would have been like and trying to build a bridge from the past to the present.—napierslogs
Plot Keywords: documentary, france, archaeology, art history, cultural heritage, natural history, exploration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The childhood, adolescence, and incredible adult years of Al Hirshfeld, celebrated creator of thousands of line drawings of famous people - many in the entertainment industry - over a span of more than sixty years. He is still drawing in his nineties. His interesting domestic life, political, and cultural views are highlights. In addition, he talks about himself a bit - seriously and lightly.(At one point he he claims that his only form of exercise has been to live in his Manhattan townhouse: stairs). He drives his car around Manhattan - an adventure in itself. Brief interviews with, and reminiscences of many friends and associates.—Eileen Berdon <eberdon@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, biography, art, new york, artist, broadway, hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the 20th century, no artistic medium in North America with so much potential for creative expression has had a more turbulent history plagued with less respect than comic books. Through animated montages, readings and interviews, this film guides us through the history of the medium from the late 1930s and 1940s with the first explosion of popularity with the superheroes created by great talents like Jack Kirby and hitting its first artistic zenith with Will Eisner's "Spirit". It then shifts to the post war comics world with the rising popularity of crime and horror comics, especially those published by EC Comics under the editorship of William B. Gaines until it came crashing down the rise of censorship with the imposition of the Comics Code. In its wake of the devastation of the medium's creative freedom, we also explore EC's defiant survival with the creation of the singular "Mad Magazine" by Harvey Kurtzman. We then move to the resurgence of the superheroes in the late 1950's and 1960's typified with the rise of the dramatically innovative Marvel Comics edited by Stan Lee. Still more important is the rise of the the gleefully uninhibited underground comics created by eccentric talents like Robert Crumb and Dan O'Neill. These leads to profiles of creators like Harvey Pekar who take the medium into new directions of expression. In the late 1970s and '80s we see the rise of alternative comics with such bold talents like Jaime Hernández for "Love and Rockets, Sue Coe for How to Commit Suicide in South Africa and especially for Art Spiegelman for his searing Pulitizer Prize winning Holocaust account, Maus. Finally, we learn of the medium's superhero mythos' revitalizing moment with the creation of Frank Miller's ferocious min-series "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns". Taken together, the film makes its argument that the medium is far more than the stereotype of juvenile trash but rather it is an art-form with a wild history and an exciting future.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, culture, history, independent film, usa, 1980s ...
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