Signatures of the Soul

Mannen, myten och huset(sv)

About the artist Ian Hellström (1925-2012) with his own museum. A tour of Ian's house is an adventure in art, antiques, skulls and dolls, all in perfect balance. Ian created various jewelry sculptures, a kind of collage with glass beads, brooches, simple jewelry and various toys, which were sometimes pasted into boxes with small compartments. His colorful art and cross-border life is captivating but not always easy to understand.

Where do they all go?(sv)

94-year old Esther, a pensioner with bad sight, is in search of her artist daugther’s public decoration. Endless phone conversations takes her through municipal bureaucracy and lost culture secretaries. Will she ever get an answer to the eternal question: Where does the art really go?

Salt of the Earth(en)

An Australian icon found on every supermarket shelf, and coating every game day pack of hot chips. But the story of the South Australian man who invented the famous Chicken Salt has never been told. While he sold the company in the late 70’s to the brand names you see in your cupboard today, he maintains that the original recipe, held secret for more than 40 years, tastes even better.

Max Gimblett: Original Mind(en)

Max Gimblett: Original Mind documents the life and process of eccentric, creative genius Max Gimblett. One of New Zealand’s most successful and internationally prominent living painters, Gimblett has been working in America since 1962. The filmmakers spent a week in Gimblett’s Soho loft where he and his devoted studio assistants generously revealed the techniques and philosophy behind his beautiful art.

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.

The Decline of the Century: Testament L.Z.(hr)

An epic documentary of rise and fall of Ustasha regime in Croatia.

Benutzt und gesteuert – Künstler im Netz der CIA(de)

Thelma & Louise: Born to Live(fr)

The story was born from the pen of debutante Callie Khouri: Thelma, married to a macho man, and Louise, an independent waitress, go on a girls' getaway that turns into a runaway when the latter, during a stopover in a bar, shoots a man who was trying to rape her friend. But at the dawn of the 1990s, screens were dominated by testosterone-fueled opuses, and Hollywood studios were reluctant to entrust the steering wheel to a female duo. Seduced by the script, forwarded by his associate Mimi Polk, Ridley Scott agreed to produce the film and decided, against all odds, to direct it himself. Under the British director's watch, the two accidental outlaws, fabulously portrayed by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, flee across the vastness of the Far West on an emancipatory epic that sees them defy male oppression and reveal themselves to themselves.

Mayor of Lowell(en)

This short documentary chronicles the culture and arts of Cambodian Americans and the Lowell, MA community through the eyes of Sokhary Chau, the first Cambodian American Mayor in the United States. Chau immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old to escape the Khmer Rouge genocide. Through this unique story that showcases the best of Lowell—immigrant success, assimilation, history, and the development of the arts—we see a man born into a war-torn country who comes to America to be a first-in-the-nation leader.

Bomb It(en)

Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on five continents, the documentary tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.

I'm not unhappy(fr)

Film student Laïs Decaster trains her camera on her close-knit group of friends to capture daily life in the suburb of Argenteuil, near Paris.

20 years after Caméra Café(fr)

To celebrate the release of a new movie for their 20th anniversary, this documentary offers some behind-the-scenes footages.

Always Forward(es)

Plastic artist Aparicio Arthola talks with his student about the catarsis in his creative process, the loss, death and uncertainty of art life in Nicaragua

Jeff Koons: The Whitney Retrospective(en)

The Whitney Museum of American Art presented the landmark exhibition Jeff Koons: A Retrospective from June 27 to October 19, 2014. It was the largest, most comprehensive survey of Koons’s art ever assembled, spanning four decades of his career and displaying 145 works from every series, including 13 new pieces exhibited publicly for the first time. The film follows Koons and Whitney Chief Curator, Scott Rothkopf, who conceived and organized the show, through every gallery of the exhibition. In addition, insightful interviews with Adam Weinberg, the Whitney’s Director, Robert Storr, Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Art, and Michelle Kuo, Editor of Artforum, help to deepen the investigation into Koon’s art and process.

Guardians of the Galapagos(en)

Go behind the scenes with the crew of Sea Lions of the Galapagos to showcase not just the production of a film, but the world that inspired it.

A Travelling is a Moral Affair(en)

Grandpa Called It Art(en)

This MGM Passing Parade series short takes a look at changing definitions of art in the United States.

Meet You at the Hippos(en)

Actor Mark Bonnar is on a mission to understand more about the Scottish new towns in which he grew up, exploring the street sculpture made by artists such as his dad in the 60s, 70s and 80s. He discovers why the new towns are there and how they enticed people out of the bigger cities, and uncovers the surprising ways in which public art changed the new towns and the new towns changed public art. Mark's father, Stan, made sculptures that stand to this day on the streets of Glenrothes, East Kilbride and the Scottish new town that never was, Stonehouse. These new towns employed town artists to make artworks in the very housing precincts the new residents were moving into.

Mistr Theodorik(cs)

I'm in Love with Pippa Bacca(it)

Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, better known as Pippa Bacca, was a 34 years old Italian artist. She crossed 11 countries involved in wars, hitchhiking with another Milanese artist, Silvia Moro, both wearing a wedding dress. This was a performance for peace, trust and hoping to prove that if you rely on others, you’ll receive good things only. After travelling many roads, the two artists decided to split for a while in Istanbul, planning to meet again in Byblos. Pippa left then, alone, and nobody heard from her again.