|
Alice Neel (1900-1984), one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century, reinvented the genre by expressing the inner landscape of her subjects, who included luminaries such as Andy Warhol, Bella Abzug, and Allen Ginsberg as well as her neighbors in Spanish Harlem.Directed by her grandson, Andrew Neel, this very personal film captures her struggles as a female artist, a single mother, and a painter who defied convention. With unlimited access to photos, video, art, and letters, Neel reveals a portrait of the artist consistent with the themes of intimacy, family, and survival that were so central to her work.
Further Information:
“The fascinating documentary Alice Neel illuminates history while also demonstrating how an artist’s style reveals his or her personality.”
Mark Zoller Seitz, New York Times
| Catalog Number: MC-831 |
Type: Feature |
Genre: Documentary |
| Copyright: 2008 |
Length: 82 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 0 (All) |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: |
UPC: 829567051023 |
| Label: Arts Alliance |
This title is available in Europe for Wholesale - List Prices: £19.99 / 29.95€
Wholesale Purchasing:
Program MC-831 is available for wholesale from Microcinema DVD. Contact info[at]microcinema.com or call at +1-415-447-9750
Exhibition:
Program MC-831 may be licensed for Exhibition.
There currently are no reviews available
|
Black, White + Gray
MC-796, 2008
|
Black White + Gray examines the life and lives of influential curator and collector, Sam Wagstaff, a veritable force in the art world for nearly three decades. The film reveals the symbiotic relationship Wagstaff shared with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in New York during the heady years of the 70s and 80s when Mapplethorpe was living with musician and poet Patti Smith.
Yale-educated and born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Sam Wagstaff’s transformation from innovative museum curator to Robert Mapplethorpe’s lover and patron is intensively probed in Black White + Gray. During the heady years of the 1970s and 1980s, the New York City art scene was abuzz with a new spirit, and Mapplethorpe would be at the center of it. Wagstaff pulled him from his suburban Queens existence, gave him a camera and brought him into this art world that seemed to be waiting for him, creating the man whose infamous images instilled emotions ranging from awe to anger. In turn, Mapplethorpe brought the formerly starched-shirt preppie to the world of drugs and gay S-and-M sex, well-documented in his still-startling photographs. Twenty five years separated the lovers, but their relationship was symbiotic to its core, and the two remained together forever. The film also explores the relationship both men had with musician/poet Patti Smith, whose 1975 debut album “Horses” catapulted her to fame.
Wagstaff’s story is one of personal transformation—from conservative, starchy, Yale-educated preppy to downtown habitué, hipster and experimenter. Both he and Mapplethorpe enabled each other to discover different parts of themselves—both men encouraged the other to mine new territory in the arts and in their personal lives as well. Wagstaff’s death from AIDS, in 1987, and later Mapplethorpe’s, in 1989, marked the end of an era. Black White + Gray reveals the powerful troika these two men formed with Patti Smith, and the influence their collective work continues to have over present-day art and culture.
Bonus feature includes an additional interview with Sam Wagstaff at the Corcoran museum. more >
|
|
|
|
|
Cats of Mirikitani, The
MC-797, 2008
|
Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. A triumphant story of how Art and Love can heal the painful past. Winner of over 10 awards. more >
|
|
|
|
|
Cool School, The
MC-820, 2008
|
THE COOL SCHOOL is an object lesson in how to build an art scene from scratch and what to avoid in the process. The film focuses on the seminal Ferus Gallery, which groomed the LA art scene from a loose band of idealistic beatniks into a coterie of competitive, often brilliant artists, including Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman, Wallace Berman, Ed Moses and Robert Irwin. The Ferus also served as launching point for New York imports, Andy Warhol (hosting his first Soup Can show), Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein as well as leading to the first Pop Art show and Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective. What was lost and gained is tied up in a complex web of egos, passions, money, and art. This is how L.A. came of age.
Irving Blum, Walter Hopps, Ed Ruscha, Frank Gehry, Dennis Hopper, Ed Kienholz, Billy Al Bengston, John Baldessari, Dean Stockwell, Larry Bell, Ken Price.
NARRATOR: Jeff Bridges more >
|
|
|
|
|
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
MC-822, 2008
|
Perhaps America’s most important artist from the last fifty years, Jack Smith is simultaneously hailed as the godfather of performance art, a groundbreaking photographer and the ‘William Blake of film’. His utopian ideals, artistic processes and bejeweled artworks left no generation untouched since, and became essential influences to contemporary art superstars like Andy Warhol, Federico Fellini and Matthew Barney.
In her feature-length film debut, director Mary Jordan combines Smith’s rare and unseen films and photographs with rare audio recordings, acting appearances, and other relics squeezed from Smith’s vaulted archives. Commentaries from art luminaries, critics and Smith’s friends and enemies (such as screenwriter/playwright Ronald Tavel, New York Observer critic Andrew Sarris, transvestite extraordinaire Mario Montez, and filmmaker Ken Jacobs) intercut Smith himself proffering condemnations of capitalism, critics and institutional-art “gatekeepers.” Jordan also delves into Smith’s tenuous relationship with Andy Warhol—who adopted Smith’s ideas and actors in his own work (including Smith’s “Superstars” concept), his vilification of New American cinema pioneer Jonas Mekas, and other previously undocumented biographical topics.
From the Whitney to the Louvre, Smith is acknowledged as one of America’s most influential artists, yet his legacy remains at the edges of obscurity. Pure in his artistic pursuits, Smith smashed head-on into the politics intersecting creativity, capitalism and meaning in contemporary art. Since his 1989 death, Smith’s work has been rarely publicly displayed. Still his influence pervades contemporary art and pop-culture today. This documentary portrait pays homage to New York’s ultimate anti-hero and the original King of the Underground.
cast:
Tony Conrad
Ken Jacobs
Sylvère Lotringer
Judith Malina
Jonas Mekas
Mario Montez
Ronald Tavel
John Waters
John Zorn
Agosto Machado
Andrew Sarris
Ari Roussimoff
Billy Name
Ela Troyano
Gary Indiana
George Kuchar
Helen Gee
Henry Hills
Holly Woodlawn
Ira Cohen
Ivan Galietti
Jerry Tartaglia
John Matturri
John Vaccaro
Lawrence Rinder
Mary Woronov
Mike Kelley
Nayland Blake
Nick Zedd
Richard Foreman
Robert Heide
Robert Wilson
Taylor Mead
Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt
Uzi Parnes
William Niederkorn more >
|
|
|
|
No screenings found
|
Email this page to a friend
