As one art scene insider proclaims, the contemporary art world can be summed up as “rich people trying to prove how rich they are,” but is that all there is to this billion dollar industry? Well-researched and expertly constructed, Barry Avrich’s eye-opening documentary peels back the layers of the art world economy- from production to circulation, and delineates every integral player in the game of art-making, including curators, gallerists, collectors, donors, auction houses, and … artists. In the process, he unpacks the complex and surprising ecosystem that supports the art world superstars and million-dollar deals that make front-page news. Featuring extraordinary access to industry players and candid statements from prominent artists like Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, Taryn Simon, and Marina Abramovic, Blurred Lines collides the two narratives of the art world as both above and beholden to market forces.
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Academy Award Winning Director, Daniel Junge (Saving Face) and director Bryan Storkel (Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians) team up with producers Eben Kostbar and Joseph McKelheer (The Hammer) for a feature documentary about the confluence of Christianity and mixed martial arts, including ministries which train fighters. The film follows several pastors and popular fighters in their quest to reconcile their faith with a sport that many consider violent and barbaric. Faith is tried and questions are raised. Can you really love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face?
Charlotte Gainsbourg looks at her mother Jane Birkin in a way she never did, overcoming a sense of reserve. Using a camera lens, they expose themselves to each other, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship.
An intimate portrait of the acclaimed North Carolina band The Avett Brothers, charting their decade-and-a- half rise, while chronicling their present-day collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin on the multi-Grammy-nominated album “True Sadness.”
Since the beginning of her career, Sinéad O’Connor has used her powerful voice to challenge the narratives she was surrounded by while growing up in predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland. Despite her agency, depth and perspective, O’Connor’s unflinching refusal to conform means that she has often been patronized and unfairly dismissed as an attention-seeking pop star.
Filmmaker Paul Puglisi traveled across the US to make sense of the controversy surrounding of one of America’s most enduring symbols – Christopher Columbus. Conversations with cultural leaders, historians, activists, authors and educators bring to life the perspectives that molded a 15th century sailor into a genocidal conqueror, a messenger of Christ, a cultural icon and a patriotic hero in a land he never knew existed.
An all-girls’ robotics team in Afghanistan risks it all to prove that it can compete against anyone in the world, and demonstrates that girls can become scientists and engineers instead of teenage brides.
Inspired by a 1970’s science fiction novel entitled ALTERNATIVE 3, one man, armed with nothing but a camera and an open mind, sets forth on a journey to reveal the truth behind what may well be one of the most startling secrets: An elite group is said to be secretly building an exclusive off-world survival colony on planet Mars. Credible individuals have begun to emerge claiming to have been actual Mars recruits including the great granddaughter of a historically significant American president.
A documentary feature film about the biggest global corruption scandal in history, and the hundreds of journalists who risked their lives to break the story.
Northern Disco Lights tells the untold story of a group of teenagers in the arctic city of Tromsø, who set off a chain of events that would go on to transform their country. To escape the boredom of growing up in a remote outpost they created their own music scene, setting up radio stations, parties, building synthesizers and making tunes. Word spread as like-minded souls recognised the call to arms and inspired a generation of kids who would go on to change dance music and Norway forever.
During the brutal invasion of China in 1937 by Imperial Japanese forces, tens of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war are murdered and women raped in what is known simply as “The Rape of Nanking.” This docudrama is a stirring account of a small band of courageous American missionaries who choose to stay in Nanking to try and protect a quarter million vulnerable Chinese civilians who are trapped in a city ruled by a savage, out of control army. Their stories are brought vividly to life through actual real-time letters and diaries as they bear witness to one of the worst wartime atrocities in history.
