Larry Wessel invites you to explore the phantasmagorical worlds created by a variety of artists, writers, photographers, musicians and collectors.
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0.0For years, artist Drew Friedman has chronicled a strange, alternate universe populated by forgotten Hollywood stars, old Jewish comedians and liver-spotted elevator operators. Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt is an in-depth documentary tracing artist Friedman's evolution from underground comics to the cover of The New Yorker. The film, directed by Kevin Dougherty, features interviews with Friedman's friends and colleagues, including Gilbert Gottfried, Patton Oswalt, Richard Kind, Mike Judge, Merrill Markoe and many others.
6.5Filmed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Cut Piece documents one of Yoko Ono’s most powerful conceptual pieces. Performed by the artist herself, Ono sits motionless on the stage after inviting the audience to come up and cut away her clothing in a denouement of the reciprocity between victim and assailant.
8.0Romantic art was a response to the social upheavals of the 19th century, as shown by works by its emblematic painters Friedrich, Venetsianov and Delacroix.
0.0International Magic Presents: The Derren Brown Lecture is an 80-minute lecture DVD of close-up mentalism and subsequent discussion of various aspects of Brown's performance. Again, this product is not intended for general consumption but is directed at magicians and mentalists only.
In the north country there are helpers. People with special gifts and abilities. In the Sámi heritage they have existed for centuries. They healed, relieved pain and stopped bleeding. And much more. The good helpers are still here. Out there in our modern world, they are hidden, sometimes hard to find - but not gone. What kind of knowledge do they possess - is it a gift, or could anyone learn how to heal?
0.0May 2, 2024. Amidst big names from São Paulo's drag scene, a young filmmaker dives into the experience of becoming a drag queen for one night.
0.0While locked-up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 40-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As Jesse's work captures the art world's attention, he struggles to adjust to life outside, living with the threat that any misstep will trigger a life sentence.
6.0Chewing gum sculptures, a wealthy gallerist, a notorious murder case, and the segregated south - it's all part of Nellie Mae Rowe's boundless universe. This World Is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist's world and her life spanning the 20th century.
0.0William Heimdal is one of the most talented young painters in Norway, and wants to master the old classical techniques, but feels he is misunderstood by society, and should have lived in a different time. Is he complex, or is everyone else?
Newfoundland painter Gerald Squires has referred to his portraits as "confrontations," though not intending the hostility that word can convey. This film shows a meeting between the artist and Edythe Goodridge, art curator and critic. Through a combination of Squires's reflections on his life and work and the good-natured banter of these two friends, an intimate portrait evolves of the artist and his subject.
Three stand-up comedians seek fame and fortune in the hottest comedy scene in the world: San Francisco in the 1980s.
6.0This cinematic journey into the waters off East Africa chronicles the story behind artist Damien Hirst's massive exhibition of oceanic treasures.
7.4Giovanni Segantini rose from humble origins to become the most important of Italian pointillists, and one of the most important symbolist painters in the 19th century. This film focuses on his way of feeling nature as a source of artistic and spiritual inspiration.
0.0Largely due to censorship, many films, especially documentaries and independent films, can't be released in China. But underground cinema clubs are making independent films accessible to Chinese audience despite the all the risks.
A monument handcrafted by Konstantin Bessmertny is exhibited at Venice Biennale 2007.
7.3Directed by Margot Benacerraf, Reverón is a poetic and visually striking documentary that delves into the life and artistic vision of Venezuelan painter Armando Reverón. Set in the sun-drenched coastal landscape of Macuto, where the artist lived in near isolation, the film captures his eccentric lifestyle and unique creative process. Through evocative imagery and a contemplative narrative, Reverón explores his deep connection to nature, his experiments with light and texture, and his profound artistic genius. This seminal work stands as a tribute to one of Venezuela’s most influential painters and a landmark in Latin American documentary filmmaking.
7.6Storyteller and Conceptual Magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to understand the illusory nature of identity and answer the deceptively simple question 'Who am I?'
Documentary examining the medieval myth of the Philosopher's Stone, a Holy Grail-type relic which supposedly held the key to alchemy and immortality. Many noted alchemists and adventurers searched obsessively for the artifact hoping to learn its powerful secrets, a quest which allegedly drove some to madness and others to celestial encounters.
0.0A sick man discovers empathetic wisdom on how to cope with his deadly autoimmune disease within the colorful expressive works of the late Swiss-German modern artist, Paul Klee.
