L'Atelier du Val de Grâce

Echo of the Mountain

June 2015 •Spanish

Echo of the Mountain takes a look at the life and work of Santos de la Torre, a great Huichol artist who, like his people, lives in oblivion. Despite having made a great mural for the metro station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, Santos lives isolated and ignored in his country. This documentary follows his pilgrimage to Wirikuta, where he asks gods for permission to make a new mural; his journey across 385 miles of the Peyote Route, and Santos's creative process during the making of a new mural which aims to illustrate the history, mythology and religious traditions of the Huichol people.

Semi Colin

January 2012 •English

Challenging all notions of genre, Semi Colin is a living, breathing art installation. Part performance, part art, part social comment, Colin philosophizes on his life's obsessive work as an erotic artist.

Naked

June 2019 •English

Three life models pose naked for an artist. They are Kate Dunne, Dylan Jon Matthews, and Izabella Linuza. We see them pose naked as the artist draws and paints them. They tell us about how they got into life modeling, what it feels like to stand naked in front of strangers, body image, and sexual issues. We explore the ancient and mysterious relationship between the artist and the life model. At the end, Dylan draws Kate and Izabella naked. Then Kate and Izabella draw Dylan naked. We demonstrate the similarities and differences between the male gaze and the female gaze.

If I Had Four Dromedaries

November 1966 •French

Composed entirely of still photographs shot by Marker himself over the course of his restless travel through twenty-six countries, If I Had Four Dromedaries stages a probing, at times agitated, search for the meanings of the photographic image, in the form of an extended voiceover conversation and debate between the "amateur photographer" credited with the images and two of his colleagues. Anticipating later writings by Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag (who professed her admiration for the film) If I Had Four Dromedaries reveals Marker's instinctual understanding of the secret rapport between still and moving image.

Legends of the Knight

December 2013 •English

Legends of the Knight weaves together the stirring true stories of individuals who have overcome devastating obstacles, unselfishly given to the community, and embraced their inner superhero because of their love of Batman. Through the deeply personal tales of Batman fans, writers, and filmmakers, this feature-length documentary explores the power of heroic stories and encourages viewers to find their own unique path to heroism. Funded by over 1,100 people from around the world, Legends of the Knight is a return to our childhood dreams of being a hero. Put on your cape, and be inspired!

There Are No Fakes

April 2019 •English

Norval Morrisseau was the first Indigenous Canadian artist to be taken seriously in the art world. By the turn of this century his work commanded tens of thousands of dollars. So when Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn learned his prized painting was a forgery, he sued. But as Jamie Kastner's doc reveals, there was a cottage industry in fake Morrisseaus, an industry that flourished unchecked for years, feeding on greed, exploitation, racism and contempt.

El sexo sentido

June 2014 •Spanish

Between the ages of two and three, children already know which gender they belong to. One in 10,000 males and one in 40,000 females feel the opposite gender to the one they were assigned at birth. The first signs of transsexuality can appear very early. The families of all the protagonists in the documentary agree that their children have, almost from the moment they began to speak, expressed with surprising insistence and firmness that they belonged to the sex opposite to that of their genitalia.

Exode

October 2016 •French

Unrest

October 2017 •English

When Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden, doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Determined to live, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her story—and four other families' stories—fighting a disease medicine forgot.

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

April 2014 •English

Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

Appalachian Journey

July 1991 •English

Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there. Performers include Tommy Jarrell, Janette Carter, Ray and Stanley Hicks, Frank Proffitt Jr., Sheila Kay Adams, Nimrod Workman and Phyllis Boyens, Raymond Fairchild, and others, with a bonus of a few African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont.

You're So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night

December 2016 •English

An extensive look at the making of Fright Night (1985) and Fright Night Part 2 (1988) featuring exclusive interviews with cast and crew members, rare photographs, behind-the-scenes footage and more.

The Fight for Saturday Night

December 2014 •English

Michael Grade tells a tale of television skullduggery and dirty dealings in the battle to win the Saturday night ratings crown.

What Difference Does It Make?

February 2014 •English

A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.

The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch

December 2016 •English

Exhibition on Screen's latest release celebrates the life and masterpieces of Hieronymus Bosch brought together from around the world to his hometown in the Netherlands as a one-off exhibition. With exclusive access to the gallery and the show, this stunning film explores this mysterious, curious, medieval painter who continues to inspire today's creative geniuses. Over 420,000 people flocked to the exhibition to marvel at Bosch's bizarre creations but now, audiences can enjoy a front row seat at Bosch's extraordinary homecoming from the comfort of their own home anywhere in the world. Expert insights from curators and leading cultural critics explore the inspiration behind Bosch's strange and unsettling works. Close-up views of the curiosities allow viewers to appreciate the detail of his paintings like never before. Bosch's legendary altarpieces, which have long been divided among museums, were brought back together for the exhibition and feature in the film.

F1 How It Was

October 2016 •English

"‘F1: How it was’ is a thrilling, action-packed, insightful documentary into some of the sport’s finest races, despite the lack of budget or theme, Duke Video deliver on providing fans with an entertaining documentary that would make the perfect gift this Christmas." - Joshua Suttill, www.readmotorsport.com

The New Man

November 2016 •English

A creative documentary about becoming a parent... and how to reconceive yourself. Fiction director Josh Appignanesi turns the camera on himself and his wife as they undergo the ordeal of becoming parents in the era of man-children and assisted reproduction. Faced with fatherhood, Josh spirals comically into an envious career funk. But life-threatening complications emerge- the couple are tested to the brink, confronting shattering losses. It's a portrait of our generation going through a revolution in reproduction- forced to find new ways to think about ourselves as creative beings. We hear from Slavoj Žižek, John Berger, Darian Leader (20,000 Days) and Zadie Smith. Universal yet still taboo, it's a film for everyone who has children, wants them, or still feels like a child themselves.

Ilmārs Blumbergs

May 2019 •Latvian

The story of the secret of self-creativity, the loneliness of the soul, the meridians of con-sciousness and the scope of man. Ilmārs Blumbergs (1943-2016) is a concept in life than can be classically proven if we analyze his work in set design, poster art, painting and multimedia work. The personality of Blumbergs, however is a shifting and intangible material which ensures superior value, wonderfulness and intimacy to all that he created. Those who analyze his art and world perceptions, recognize the work as seeming to come from antiquity, but it can never be catalogued or recorded in bookkeeping. How fortunate that it also cannot be consumed.

A Documentary on the Making of 'Gore Vidal's Caligula'

January 1981 •English

A Documentary on the Making of 'Gore Vidal's Caligula'

Großes Kino made in DDR

May 2016 •German

In 2016, DEFA celebrates its 70th anniversary: the film embarks on a journey into the exciting film history of the GDR. In a comprehensive kaleidoscope, the importance of DEFA productions is illuminated, the relevance of the films as propaganda productions for the GDR, which socio-political themes were in the foreground, but also which heroes DEFA brought to the screen and celebrated as people from the people.