The Sophisticated Misfit(2007)

The Art of Acid(en)

Mark McCloud is the world's leading collector Of LSD art. His 'Institute of Illegal Images' has over 30,000 framed hits of acid and traces the history of the drug's cultural influence through the unique art form used in its distribution - blotter art. After enduring and defeating aggressive prosecutions by law enforcement seeking to put him behind bars for life, Mark now appears to be more of a visionary than an outlaw and his museum has become a place of pilgrimage for believers in LSD's spiritual power.

James Castle: Portrait of an Artist(en)

Deaf artist James Castle drew on his upbringing in rural Idaho as well as his profoundly silent inner world to create haunting paintings, sculptures and collages. He often used found objects and homemade tools to bring his vision to life. This documentary relies on interviews with Castle's family, art historians and prominent members of the hearing-impaired community to explain his inspirations, techniques and lasting legacy.

Renasça(pt)

Danza en la sangre(es)

Pictura(en)

A documentary film directed by seven famous directors, and narrated by several famous Hollywood actors. The film attempts to give the general filmgoing public a taste of art history and art appreciation.

Gauguin: A Dangerous Life(en)

Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who worked with the Impressionists and had a tempestuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. But he was also a competitive and rapacious man who left his wife to bring up five children and used his colonial privilege to travel to Polynesia, where in his 40s he took ‘wives’ between 13 and 15 years old, creating images of them and their world that promoted a fantasy paradise of an unspoilt Eden in the Pacific. Later, he challenged the colonial authorities and the Catholic Church in defence of the indigenous people, dying in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, sick, impoverished and alone.

Pictures at an Exhibition(de)

What does modern art mean for ordinary visitors to an exhibition?

Soup Cans and Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World(en)

Alastair Sooke champions pop art as one of the most important art forms of the twentieth century, peeling back pop's frothy, ironic surface to reveal an art style full of subversive wit and radical ideas. In charting its story, Alastair brings a fresh eye to the work of pop art superstars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and tracks down pop's pioneers, from American artists like James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha to British godfathers Peter Blake and Allen Jones. Alastair also explores how pop's fascination with celebrity, advertising and the mass media was part of a global art movement, and he travels to China to discover how a new generation of artists are reinventing pop art's satirical, political edge for the 21st century.

The Painter and the Thief(no)

When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.

Hinter dem Vorhang: Das Geheimnis Vermeer(de)

Metamorphose: M.C. Escher, 1898-1972(en)

A documentary about the life and works of the artist M. C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.

David Choe: High Risk(en)

Artist David Choe has led a life of high risk, from hedonistic excesses to being imprisoned at a maximum security facility in a foreign country, and yet has been dramatically rewarded for his exploits. Life didn't change much when he traded a $60k fee in favor of stock in a start-up called The Facebook, but now he is estimated to be worth over $250 million, highlighting a colorful career filled with giant street art installations, porn star affairs and investigative reporting for companies like Vice and CNN. Director and childhood friend Harry Kim guides us through the fantastically surreal life of Choe featuring interviews and appearances by Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, Sasha Grey, Sean Parker, and Shepard Fairey.

Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure(en)

British artist, academic, musician and activist Bob and Roberta Smith has been waging slightly odd political protests for years, in this documentary he investigates the age of activism and discovers what people are protesting about.

The Immortal City(en)

From the legendary times of Romulus and Remus to the present day, the compelling story of the eternal city's twenty-five centuries of civilization traces the rise of Christianity over paganism through studies of Vatican art treasures.

The Da Vinci Code: The Greatest Story Ever Sold(en)

After Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism charges, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted a fictional story to make such an effective challenge to conventional history that it has forced a counter-attack from the Church, the art world and academics. Has Brown cracked the most difficult code of all our 21st-century cultural DNA?

Spomíname na Edmunda Gwerka(sk)

Inventory(fr)

A documentary by Olivier Gonard, shot partly in Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, that examines Olivier Assayas' film Summer Hours, and its approach to art.

Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali(en)

A documentary about surrealist artist Salvador Dali, narrated by Orson Welles.

Postmodernism: The Substance of Style(en)

This film features some of the most important living Postmodern practitioners, Charles Jencks, Robert A M Stern and Sir Terry Farrell among them, and asks them how and why Postmodernism came about, and what it means to be Postmodern. This film was originally made for the V&A exhibition 'Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 - 1990'.

Canaletto & the Art of Venice(en)

EXHIBITION ON SCREEN open its fifth season with Canaletto & the Art of Venice, an immersive journey into the life and art of Venice’s famous view-painter. No artist better captures the essence and allure of Venice than Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto. The remarkable group of over 200 paintings, drawings and prints on display offer unparalleled insight into the artistry of Canaletto and his contemporaries, and the city he became a master at capturing. The film also offers the chance to step inside two official royal residences - Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle – to learn more about the artist, and Joseph Smith, the man who introduced Canaletto to Britain.