Thorvaldsen

Madame Soleil, la femme qui était supposée savoir

September 2023 •French

Still Life: Ron Mueck at Work

April 2013 •French

Der Bildhauer Stephan Balkenhol

January 2006 •German

The sculptor Stephan Balkenhol is a world star on the German art scene. Yet the artist has remained as down-to-earth as his figures themselves. His wooden people fetch top prices at auctions at Christie's, Sothebie's and Co. Despite the trend towards abstraction, Balkenhol rediscovered the figurative for himself. The human being in itself, snatched from the hectic everyday world, reflecting, with an empty gaze. The sensation lies in the ordinary. Against the pathos of monuments and memorials. The film takes a look into the world of Stephan Balkenhol and observes him at work - the portrait of an extraordinary artist.

The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci

April 2018 •English

Janina Ramirez explores the BBC archives to create a TV history of Leonardo Da Vinci, discovering what lies beneath the Mona Lisa and even how he acquired his anatomical knowledge.

Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper

June 1997 •English

Isamu Noguchi was a sculptor, designer, architect, and craftsman. Throughout his life he struggled to see, alter, and recreate his natural surroundings. His gardens and fountains were transformations meant to bring out the beauty their locations had always possessed.

César

January 1971 •English

In 1971, Jean-Daniel Pollet & Guy Seligmann directed for French TV a documentary about French artist César Baldaccini. It was part of L'invité du dimanche show.

La banlieue, c’est le paradis

February 2025 •French

In the 1960s, the suburbs were meant to be modern havens for newcomers from rural France, Portugal, Spain, North Africa, and Africa, helping rebuild post-war France. Large housing complexes symbolized this ideal, offering comfort, heating, and electricity. But by the 1980s, disillusionment set in as economic crisis, unemployment, poverty, crime, racism, and police violence took hold. Mohamed Bouhafsi tells the story of a dream that didn’t last.

Congrès de Tours 1920: The Birth of the French Communist Party

December 2020 •French

The Lie Detector

January 2023 •English

In the first decades of the 20th century, when life was being transformed by scientific innovations, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the “lie detector,” the device transformed police work, seized headlines and was extolled in movies, TV and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other’s fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees’ honesty and government workers were tested for loyalty and “morals.” But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.

The Great Ice-Cream Robbery

August 1971 •English

Two screens of film about - and sometimes shot by - Claes Oldenburg, detailing his inspiration, his methods and his relationship with his partner Hannah Wilke.

Censored!

December 1999 •English

A documentary about the cultural effect of film censorship, focusing on the tumultuous times of the teens and early 1920s in America.

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405

October 2016 •English

56-year-old artist Mindy Alper has suffered severe depression and anxiety for most of her life. For a time she even lost the power of speech, and it was during this period that her drawings became extraordinarily articulate.

Il mio nome è Battaglia

October 2024 •Italian

200,000 Phantoms

July 2007 •French

In 1914, the Czech architect Jan Letzel designed in the Japanese city of Hiroshima Center for the World Expo, which has turned into ruins after the atomic bombing in August 1945. “Atomic Dome” – all that remains of the destroyed palace of the exhibition – has become part of the Hiroshima memorial. In 2007, French sculptor, painter and film director Jean-Gabriel Périot assembled this cinematic collage from hundreds of multi-format, color and black and white photographs of different years’ of “Genbaku Dome”.

Sculptures by Sofu - Vita

May 1962 •Japanese

A short documentary by Hiroshi Teshigahara about his father, the sculptor Sofu Teshigahara, preparing an exhibition.

When Brazil Was Modern

June 2025 •Portuguese

Brazilian architecture in the 20th century influenced generations of architects worldwide. But there was a time when choosing an architectural style also meant choosing a vision for the country, amidst political power struggles.

Le Paris des mannequins

October 1963 •French

A photoshoot on the roofs and in the streets of Paris, under the astonished eyes of the inhabitants.

1908-2008 y sigo

April 2011 •Spanish

Through interviews with different people linked to the work and life of the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003), this documentary aims to unravel fundamental aspects of his work.

Jackie: Behind the Myth

January 1999 •English

1999 biographical documentary PBS film about the life and death of Jackie Kennedy Onassis

Pensionnats catholiques de Guyane, la blessure

May 2025 •French