Experiments in Advertising: The Films of Erwin Blumenfeld: Abstraction & Distortion

Jean Paul Gaultier fait son show(fr)

On the occasion of Jean Paul Gaultier's 40-year career and his show "Fashion Freak Show" at the Folies Bergère, France 2 has given carte blanche to the most famous French couturier of the world who has created for the first time a great show of varieties fully immersed in his universe. Jean Paul Gaultier who, in his childhood, dreamed while watching the variety shows of Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier, takes the reins of this great entertainment mixing music and fashion.

The Corporation(en)

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Civilisations: The Gardens of Babel(en)

Mesopotamia was the site of the Sumerian civilisation, which flourished at the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Sumerians flourished in a hostile environment by developing agriculture and irrigation and they opened up the trade routes of the ancient world. It was the Sumerians who invented writing and the wheel, and they first divided time into minutes and seconds. In the end however the Babylonian civilisation took the place of the Sumerians. However their heritage and myths live on in the Mediterranean and Western worlds to this day.

The Story of Funk: One Nation Under a Groove(en)

A documentary on funk and P-funk and the bands and artists that made it all happen: James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Maurice White and his Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, Kool & The Gang and lots more. It tells the story of black American music and how it evolved from funk to more main stream to disco to hiphop to contemporary R 'n B and its impact on society. Music and live footage from the bands, interviews with artists and band members of Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton and lots more.

Helvetica(en)

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

DJ Punk: The Photographer Daniel Josefsohn(de)

Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than German photographer Daniel Josefsohn, who died in 2016 at the age of 54, leaving his mark in advertising with his irreverent aesthetic and punk sensibility. It was his spontaneous, imperfect images shot for an MTV campaign in 1994 that first made him famous.

Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse(en)

In this highly anticipated sequel to his groundbreaking, ADVERTISING AND THE END OF THE WORLD, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism. Ranging from the emergence of the modern advertising industry in the early 20th century to the full-scale commercialization of the culture today, Jhally identifies one consistent message running throughout all of advertising: the idea that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. He then shows how this powerful narrative, backed by billions of dollars a year and propagated by the best creative minds, has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption.

Dior and I(fr)

Behind-the-scenes documentary revealing what goes on inside the colourful, privileged, and sometimes stressful Christian Dior fashion house.

The September Issue(en)

A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.

Fashion As A Social Control(en)

A look at the ways fashion has been used to socially control women in Canada, both historically and in the 20th century.

Yohji Yamamoto: Dressmaker(en)

Yohji Yamamoto | Dressmaker is an intimate and delving portrait of one of fashion's most revered stalwarts. For a man who creates clothing as armour, Yamamoto opens up as never before to share the core values that shape his life and work. Interviews with family, friends, employees and confidants reveal further insight about this complex and enigmatic figure.

Exposure | Fashion Collection 2023(en)

View the creations from the 2023 graduating cohort of fashion designers, thinkers, curators and researchers of Massey University.

The Codes of Gender(en)

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

A Living Culture(en)

A short documentary with funk, fashion and noise, with intimate stories from students and artisans from New Zealand and India pursuing a responsible fashion future.

Kim Kardashian Theory(fr)

Traceable(en)

Traceable follows Laura Siegel, a fashion designer who takes a critical look at the fashion supply chain and fast fashion industry, travels through India in order to meet and work together with the artisans who create the majority of the clothing that we wear. The film explores our growing disconnect of how and who makes our clothing, thus instilling a need for traceability in the fashion industry.

Harry Styles: The Finishing Touch(fr)

Hit after hit, pop-icon Harry Styles, once the centerpiece of the world's biggest boy bands has grown into someone who isn't afraid of self-expression, continuing to reject the traditional confines of masculinity.

John Singer Sargent: Fashion and Swagger(en)

Filmed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Tate Britain, London, the exhibition reveals Sargent’s power to express distinctive personalities, power dynamics and gender identities during this fascinating period of cultural reinvention. Alongside 50 paintings by Sargent sit stunning items of clothing and accessories worn by his subjects, drawing the audience into the artist’s studio. Sargent’s sitters were often wealthy, their clothes costly, but what happens when you turn yourself over to the hands of a great artist? The manufacture of public identity is as controversial and contested today as it was at the turn of the 20th century, but somehow Sargent’s work transcends the social noise and captures an alluring truth with each brush stroke.

Fashionably Modest(en)

Nushmia Khan, a documentary film-maker, follows three Muslim women involved in the fashion industry: Dina Torkia, a YouTube star; Sadeel Allam, a successful blogger; and Maryam Basir, a bikini model. The result is a fascinating film, full of thoughtful opinions about faith, style, and the ways that people use clothing to communicate.

POSERS - The New Romantics(en)

Shot in a single day, POSERS captures a thriving subculture in Kings Road, London: the style, music, and expression of the New Romantics.