Mr. Right(2005)

Unprovoked: A Creative Process(en)

Artist Taylor Denise sets out to make her first painting, which also happens to be her largest work to-date. As she embarks on this creative process of making shit because it looks cool, she's met with comradery, debauchery, and people's brains interrupting art whatever way they want to-ery.

Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby Live in Jersey(en)

Lou Reed was wise to chronicle a concert by his early-'80s band, featuring lead guitarist Robert Quine and bassist Fernando Saunders. Reed had used them on his trilogy of strong albums -- The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, and New Sensations -- released between 1982 and 1984. This 52-minute video, shot at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ, in 1984, is a straightforward, no-frills live show. Reed, in black T-shirt and black leather pants, stands on-stage before a cityscape background and makes his way through a set that features both a selection of Velvet Underground songs, and his sole hit single, "Walk on the Wild Side," plus highlights from his three recent albums, notably such songs as "I Love You Suzanne." As such, the video makes a good Lou Reed career sampler.

New York Underground(en)

In the mid 1800s, New York City was one of the most crowded places on earth. The congested streets and pokey transportation system were a source of constant complaint. On March 24, 1900, ground was broken for the Big Apple's subway; the Interborough Rapid Transit Line opened four years later, running more than 26 miles of underground track at the speed of 35 miles per hour. Soon thousands in the city were "doing the subway."

The Business of Thought: A Recorded History of Artists Space(en)

An oral history of Artists Space, the legendary New York artists organization. Told through the voices of the artists, critics and curators who formed it, the film is narrated by voiceover culled from 30 hours of archival cassette tape interviews over a 45 year period. Artists such as Laurie Anderson, Mike Kelley, Hito Steyerl and David Wojnarowicz walk us through the decades. A formally-experimental and raucously-told chronology composed of rare archival documentation, The Business of Thought... is a reminder of the radical potential of the arts and the importance of collective, cultural spaces.

Shine a Light(en)

Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

Orchard Street(en)

This short film documents the daily life of the goings-on on Orchard Street, a commercial street in the Lower East Side New York City.

Elevator Pitch(en)

A depiction of New York’s subway as an absurd obstacle course – revealing a system that shuts many out of a city in motion.

Il lato Sbagliato del Ponte(it)

The Legend of Swee' Pea(en)

Lloyd Daniels was one of the most gifted basketball players ever to emerge from New York City. He was born in Brooklyn in 1967 and grew up in the poorest neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens. His mother died when he was three, and his father deserted the family, leaving Lloyd an orphan to be raised by his two grandmothers. Virtually unsupervised, Lloyd learned early-on how to hustle to survive. Hustling came easy for him because he was a charming and likable kid. He still hustles to this day.

Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin'(en)

An account of the short life of genius musician Jimi Hendrix (1942-70), probably the most talented and influential guitarist of the twentieth century: his humble beginnings in Seattle, his time in New York, his rise to fame in swinging London… Live fast, love hard, die young.

Citizen(en)

A collection of personal anecdotes from those who have navigated through a tumultuous year in America.

Hometown Hero: The Legend of New York's Chopped Cheese(en)

Some want to keep it a secret, others want to deconstruct it, and some New Yorkers simply want to celebrate the city's fabled chopped cheese sandwich.

toe: DOKU-EN-KAI(en)

At the twenty-year apex of their career, the Japanese quartet add another captivating live release to their extensive catalog. Shot ‘in the round’ at le Poisson Rouge in NYC, DOKU-EN-KAI delivers the band completely absorbed by their element in a kinetic, impassioned and frenzied set that brings toe's renown and allure into sharp, unmistakable focus.

Beat Goes On(en)

Beat Goes On is an impressionistic portrait of the activist Keith Cylar (1958–2004), co-founder of Housing Works and a central figure in the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) NY. Cylar spoke clearly, frequently and with moral force about the struggles of people living with HIV/AIDS in New York City, many of whom were impoverished and struggling with multiple social and medical problems. His openness about his own drug use and the centrality of the fight against the criminalization of drugs for AIDS activism make Cylar's legacy especially resonant and relevant at this time.

A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary(en)

A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary, a wacky and poignant documentary about the positive effects of the bond between dogs and humans, told through the story of Gayle Kirschenbaum and her dog Chelsea. Chelsea rigged with a "doggie cam", this couple hit the streets of NY looking for love. 9/11 happens. Chelsea emerges as a healing force as a therapy dog.

Philip Glass: Looking Glass(en)

This documentary captures the overflowing energy and activity of one today's greatest composers, Philip Glass, and allows us to follow him from New York to London and from Paris to Boston. He speaks about his beginnings, his moving to Paris for two years of intensive study with Nadia Boulanger, his meeting with Indian musician Ravi Shankar and director Robert Wilson, who had a deep influence on his career. The film also shows him at work on the last details of his opera The Sound of a Voice, directed by Robert Woodruff and conducted by Alan Johnson. Éric Darmon's camera, with its poetic shots and original framings, takes us for a musical journey into seven months of the life of the composer who, rising from the underground scene of the seventies, brought on a revolution in modern theater.

Who Killed Michael Stewart?(en)

A documentary about a case of police brutality in the 80's NYC, the killing of graffiti artist Michael Stewart

How to Squash a Squat(en)

1989, New York City's Alphabet City and East Village. A year after the Tompkins Square Park Riot, squatters and their community allies try to stop the demolition of their building after an arson. Police forces occupy the neighborhood while the demolition continues. A portrait of an East Village that is no more. An homage to the voices and sounds of a neighborhood before its gentrification.

Corno(fr)

A feature-length documentary portrait of Québécoise painter Johanne Corno, who has lived and worked in New York City for more than 20 years. Ignored by the art intelligentsia in Québec, she settled abroad to escape that creative constraint, and built an enviable international career. Today, she casts a lucid eye on her work and describes the resources she draws on to survive in the jungle of the contemporary art world.

The Sunshine(en)

Portrait of the Sunshine Hotel, a flop house on the Bowery in New York's skid row. We meet Vic, the desk clerk, who paints watercolours and pastels; Jonesy, a janitor who talks about bedbugs; Bruce, a voluble alcoholic who makes runs for residents, picking up beer or sandwiches for them and sharing his philosophy with us; Vinnie, on methadone, caring for caged birds; Cashmere, a prostitute, the only woman at the hotel; Earl, who works downstairs in the Bowery's last factory, and Mike, the general manager, who talks about the changing face of the Bowery. The film concludes with tourists outside the Sunshine, hearing from Seth Kamil of Big Onion Walking Tours.